Museo de la ciudad
 Housed in the oldest building of the city, the Museo de la ciudad
is in the heart of the Historical center of Quito. It was founded in
1565 by order of the King of Spain, as Our Merciful Lord Christ Jesus´
Hospital. It adopted the name of Saint John of God's Hospital in the
XIX century as it is still known today. The installation of hospitals in the recently
established Spanish cities was in response to the medieval, Christian
mentality that emphasized the importance of the well-being of the
common people and its values of the solidarity and attention to the
needy. Hospitals, a name derived from the word ¨hospitality¨,
completed multiple functions in early Spanish society. Besides
assisting sick persons, they were authentic charity houses that gave a
welcome respite for orphans and homeless.
From the walls of the old
Hospital, the Museo de la ciudad pays homage to all the anonymous men
and women who day by day, throughout the centuries, have continued
expanding the city with their work, ideas, passions, joys, pains, and
highly expressive work born from the diverse identities that they
embody. For that reason, the Museum presents the History of daily
life, because only through this can the diverse identities of the
inhabitants of Quito be rescued and reconstructed. In the field of
History, the Municipality of Quito has been able to cover a
cultural demand in the area of museums.
While
these, traditionally, have concentrated on areas like that of
archaeology, art, or on important characters and events, the Museo de
la ciudad shows the history of Quito from the vantage point of the
anonymous citizens that have lived here. This focus allows one to
include the comprehension of the mentality and imagination of a
complex city inhabited by multiple communities in which the past
attests to the present and the futures from a socioeconomic
standpoint. |
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Throughout the Museum, it is possible to appreciate that
their patrimony, besides a collection of exceptional works and daily
objects, is compounded by intangible, underlying manifestations of the
urban culture: the intimacy, anecdotes, legends and traditions: the
scents and the flavours, the dress, the norms and social prohibitions,
the activities and the parties. Through the constant change in the
exhibitions and of the policy involving the community in the
activities and objectives, the Museum has become a live and active
participant in contemporary Quito. The Museo de la ciudad offers the citizens a
dynamic space of integration and social participation, an alternative
place of learning in which the diversity is a factor of wealth, and
the culture offers every day like development alternative. Inside the
centennial walls of the Hospital, the Museum recovers the old
functions of solidarity and service to the community for those that
this building was originally built.
Museum Sections:
Pre Hispanic The region of Quito was the centre of
interregional trade and a point of exchange of ideas, products,
cultures and races. Here, merchants could exchange goods from the most
diverse origins, languages, and religious beliefs. With time, ethnic
dominions of great power and enormous population concentration were
constituted. In the last decades before the arrival of the Spaniards,
Quito was an important, complex commercial and defense for the Inca
conquerors. Their constructions served as the foundations on which
those who settled the Spanish city and the colonial society was built
upon.
Address: García Moreno 572 and Rocafuerte Quito Pichincha Ecuador.
Open: Tuesday – Sunday from 09h30 to 17h30
Telephone: 228 3882, 228 2883, 295 3643
Services: Tours. |
