Best Museums in Montevideo
Best Museums in Montevideo, a tour of the best collections that the city offers.
Montevideo has a great cultural attraction, which is why it has endless activities and places to visit. It is one of the most vibrant and complete cities in South America.
In this case, we are going to tell you about the best museums that you will find here, so that you can enjoy very interesting exhibitions and collections that you cannot miss!
Here we leave you our selection of the Best Museums in Montevideo:
Carnival Museum
From its name, you can imagine what it is about. The most popular expression in Uruguay is represented here: Carnival, a national holiday that unites thousands of people. In this museum, you will see a wide collection of drums, costumes, masks, photographs that cover 100 years of the history of the Montevidean Carnival and recordings.
The origin of this festival was due to the musical influence of the Africans who arrived as slaves, but they always kept its roots alive through their music.
It is located in the part of the Historic Quarter of the City, and its objective is to keep the Montevideo identity alive.
It has an open-air space, known as the Plaza del Carnaval, with a stage to enjoy different performances of the carnival groups depending on the time of year you visit. Keep in mind that the Montevideo Carnival takes place during the summer.
It has guided tours with prior coordination, so we leave you its website so that you can access all the information, since, also, it has different schedules for each time of the year.
Museum Andes 1972
In this site, you will be able to relive the plane crash that occurred in 1972 in the Andes. This fact took the lives of 29 Uruguayans and another 16 managed to save themselves, after experiencing 72 days in really extreme conditions.
The history of this tragedy is documented in the book and the film ¡Alive!.
The objective of the Museum is to represent these victims, spreading the values of solidarity, teamwork, containment and support, as well as honoring creativity and adaptation to the environment through the management of adversities that they lived.
Open from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Here we leave your website for more information.
Museum of Pre-Columbian and Indigenous Art (MAPI)
Here, you will learn about the history of those original inhabitants who have populated Uruguay. It has a permanent exhibition of ethnographic and archaeological pieces from different cultures originating in America.
It also has temporary exhibitions, research and publications on different aspects related to its theme. With a library service with foreign and national publications on pre-Columbian and indigenous art, audiovisual material, exclusive editions, children’s books, cards and posters.
It received the Ibero-American Prize for Museums in the years 2011 to 2015, and it not only holds exhibitions in the city, but also gives objects for exhibitions abroad, given its great cultural and historical value.
The museum offers a variety of special activities, including themed meals, theater, visual arts, music, talks, discussions, literature, and much more. It has a gastronomic space so you can enjoy the different proposals both in the morning, lunch or snack.
Here is the website, where you can access the audio video guide to download to your mobile device in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
Although it has an entrance fee, on Mondays the entrance is free. It is open from Monday to Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Rivera House (National Historical Museum)
Formerly, it was the residence of the country’s first president, Fructuoso Rivera. You will see a huge collection of documents, furniture, paintings and objects that will tell you about the history of Uruguay from the original indigenous people, on the road to independence.
It is one of the most visited museums in the city, since it has the first edition of the National Constitution, among other objects of value, such as the sword of José Artigas, a hero of Uruguay’s federalism.
Admission is free, and it is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 12 a.m. to 6 p.m. Here we leave your website for more information.
National Museum of Visual Arts (MNAV)
It is one of the most popular museums in the city. It has the largest collection of prints, sculptures and paintings in the country. Located in Parque Rodó, its rooms house works by the most recognized artists in Uruguay such as Cúneo, Blanes, Figari, among others.
Here, too, celebrations of artist projects and national show awards are held.
What this Museum has in favor is that, being in the Rodó Park, you can enjoy a day of art and the outdoors at the same time, planning a visit to the museum, and then culminating in a picnic!
We leave your website for more information!
Blanes Museum
Moving away from the center, you will see the house where this great museum stands, where, among other exhibitions that stand out, you will be able to appreciate works by Juan Manuel Blanes and Pedro Figari.
Recognized for the portraits of the Uruguayan aristocracy, Blanes has immortalized the most important historical moments of the country.
In 1975, it was declared a National Historic Monument and bears the name of the famous painter, since on that date it was 100 years since his birth.
But, it is not only one of the main art museums in the city, but it also has a legend about Clarita García de Zúñiga, formerly the owner of this house. Blanes has made a portrait of her, which you can see in the museum, and many people have affirmed that her ghost inhabits the place.
It opens from Tuesday to Sunday from 12 a.m. to 6 p.m. We leave you their website here.
Football Museum
If Soccer is your passion, you cannot miss this museum! Located in the Centenario Stadium, site of the first World Cup in 1930, with an immense collection of the 1930 and 1950 Cups that were Uruguayan victories.
Here, you will not only explore the passion of the country and the history of football, but you can also visit the stands of the Centenario Stadium and the viewpoint of the Tower of Tributes.
It has two well-differentiated floors, where on the ground floor you will see temporary exhibitions, as well as a room with projection of various images. On the upper floor, is where the permanent exhibition of the beginnings of football in the country until today is located.
The service is multilingual and they have staff trained to dialogue in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese. In addition, they have an interactive platform that provides an innovative experience for those who visit the museum.
Open from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Here we leave you the website.
Museum of Memory (MUME)
As its name indicates, this site builds the memory of the Uruguayan people’s struggle against the dictatorship and state terrorism.
Located in the house that belonged to Máximo Santos, a 19th century dictator and representative of the militarism of that time.
In its permanent exhibition, it has a variety of objects, documents, photographs that traverse the history of popular resistance, the period prior to the dictatorship, exile, the recovery of democracy, and unfinished stories.
You can visit the “Big Winter” or “300 Carlos”, a clandestine torture and detention center during the military dictatorship, where around 600 people were subjected to inhumane treatment. For the guided tours, they are only carried out with prior registration, they are free and they take place on the second Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The museum is open from Monday to Saturday from 12 a.m. to 6 p.m., with free admission.
Also, it has a virtual visit, so we leave its website here.
Pittamiglio Castle
Known as the Castle of the Alchemist, where Humberto Pittamiglio in 1920 began his work related to Alchemy.
The construction is erected from a precarious family home, on Francisco Vidal Street, towards the neighboring lands, finishing the work in front of the Río de la Plata.
Here you will see how different styles of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and Cubism coexist, but what will attract your attention the most is the beauty of the place and its architecture.
In September 2021, they have also enabled a virtual tour with cultural entertainment to enjoy from your home!
It opens from Wednesday to Sunday from 12 a.m. to 8 p.m. Some of its spaces are free to enter, and for others you will have to pay a fee. Here we leave your website for you to access all the information.
To know everything you can do in Montevideo, we leave you our note here!
