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Museums - Quito
Guayaquil - Cuenca - Quito

The Alberto Mena Camaño Museo de Arte y Historia (Eugenio Espejo 1147) is set in a Jesuit house with beautiful stone columns outside on the patio. Here you will find a collection of 16th and 17th century religious artifacts. In its dungeon there are wax figures to recreate the death by execution of revolutionary prisoners that were kept and executed here by the Spanish troops in 1890.

The Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana (Avenida Patria) is where the Museo del Banco Central and the Museo de la Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana are located. This is a large round glass building which also houses a variety of guest exhibitions during the year. Check the local newspaper or at the nearest tourist information office to find out what is there when you go. At the Museo de la Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana you will find on display musical instruments from all over the world, a collection of modern art exhibits, and art from the republican period. The Museo del Banco Central presents Ecuadorian history through its arts. It has colonial art with its pottery, jewelry, tools, beautiful gold and silver objects made by the Inca civilization, and pieces from the Quito School, republican art which consists mainly of paintings representing social changes as well as landscapes and the modern art section which contains paintings mainly depicting Indigenous peoples' lives and their struggle to freedom.

The Museo Amazonico situated on the Avenida 12 de Octubre 1430 y Wilson, is run by the Mission of the Salesian. It offers a small collection of objects from the Indian tribes of the Amazon.

Close by, on the Calle Bosmediano 543, there is the Guayasamin Museo. Although Guayasamin, a contemporary Ecuadorian artist, recently passed on, his work can be admired in one of the three chambers of this museum. The other sections contain the artist's private collection and his studio.

On the south of the Carolina Park , where Rumipamba and Avenida de Los Shyris meet, you will find the Natural History Museum or Museo de Ciencias Naturales with its comprehensive collection of species of Ecuadorian flora and fauna.

The Museo de Arte Colonial at Cuenca y Mejia is set at what used to be the house of the Marquis of Valencia and it is now home to some art works from the School of Quito .

The Universidad Catolica runs its own Museum of Archaeological. It contains objects from pre-Hispanic Indians that were collected by Jacinto Jijon Camaño from whom the museum takes its name.

On the Avenida Mariscal Surce, between Garcia Moreno and Venezuela , you will find the Casa de Sucre Historical Museo with its collection of furniture, clothing, weapons and documents to mark the era of independence.

Plaza Santo Domingo is where the church Iglesia de Santo Domingo is found. Attached to it is the Museum Fray Pedro Bedon which displays the marvelous throne made of silver that the Virgen del Rosario used during religious procession.

Close to Quito , at the village of San Antonio , is the Mitad del Mundo complex. At its center is the monument to the equator. The monument is in fact a building about 30 meters high with an elevator at its center, which brings visitors to its panoramic platform. From there the tourist walks down spiraling stairs admiring the exhibits of the Museo Etnografico housed within.