Oruro's Museums have Charm and Character
Altiplano City Enhanced by Some Very Different Museums
Jul 2, 2009
Oruro's museums are distinctly different – a good thing for the traveller in this city of limited charms but great character.
Only Museum in the World With Loud Music
Top of the list is the Museo Antropologico, which must be the only museum in the world to have its own loud soundtrack. Bolivian music is played with gusto in the large barnlike space that houses several different and variable collections.
The petroglyphs are interesting, although the lack of any non-Spanish labelling is a limitation, and what there is in Spanish is quite often poor. Less interesting, because there are so many of them, are the arrowheads that take up several large cabinets and the rather nondescript pottery collection, of which better examples are seen elsewhere.
Luckily this is next to a section given over to locally-found mummies. Somehow, and maybe because those on show are largely children, this bit is sad and touching rather than grisly. What helps is that their cases face a reconstruction of the building in which they were buried – a rather solid and square mud shed with thatched roof.
Folklore Masks to Duran Duran
The most interesting part of this museum though is the folklore masks: two full walls of them in their multicoloured or black and red glory. These come from the Oruro Carnival celebrations, and given that it's one of the region's most high-profile celebrations, the range and workmanship is impressive. There is also a handful of full-length carnival costumes, some going back nearly a century when the standard of work was different but not so glitzy.
A word of not so much of warning but suggestion: the museum is located a distance outside the town centre, so it's probabably best to take a taxi rather than walk.
Under the Church
In the centre there is another first – a museum, the Museo Sacro y Minero, entered via the back of a Church. To make matters more interesting, there's actually a mine museum deep beneath the Church, some 300 plus metres deep with the displays of mining machinery and mineral samples.
Its hours are irregular so it's best to check in at the Secretariat building next door where they sell tickets for this and the much more conventional Museo de Arte on the second floor.
What a curious little place the Art Museum is – one largish room with three seperate collections and two very bored looking guides.
Priests' Vestments of Gold and Silver
On the left there are religious artefacts, and to the right a large collection of mineral samples. Centre stage is another collection of carnival masks. These range from the smaller but obviously well and home-crafted ones of the last century to the much larger and glitzy ones of more recent years. The imagery is all about lizards and reptiles, and makes a virtue of recycling. There are also a couple of costumes which wouldn't have looked out of place in a Duran Duran video from the early '80s.
More typical is the much more sedate Templo San Miguel. This is a former church building now showcasing some excellent pieces of religious art, so its appeal might be limited, which is a shame as the contents and the space are interesting.
Not only are there some good examples of local religious art with a distinctive style that draws on native traditions, but there is a huge gilded reredos. The helpful guide will show you some spectacular priestly vestments which are kept in drawers (given the amount of silver and gold in them, they should be.) Sadly, the museum has been broken into several times in the past and it might be that in future the robes won't be kept there.
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