Thursday, 15 December 2011 14:08 Written by Emilia Rojas

There are several museums in Santiago: About pre-Colombian Art, the Fashion Museum, about Fine Arts, Visual Arts, the Human Right’s Museum, etc.

As we always try to inform you about what to do, where and when, we have done a tour through one of the most traditional and entertaining neighborhoods of the city, putting the focus on a very historic block where one of the most unusual and hair-raising museums is located: The Dominican History Museum (Museo Histórico Domínico)

The Recoleta neighborhood is considered a poor area of Santiago. Although many places – big parts of what is now known as the Bellas Artes neighborhood belongs to Recoleta – such as La Vega, El Mercado Central and even exclusive stores and restaurants like El Toro are located in this area, people still associate Recoleta with parts of the city that they don’t want to see, a poor, ugly, and dirty neighborhood without green areas.

Well, there are poor and ugly parts of Recoleta, actually Avenida Recoleta is not very pleasant and doesn´t have many trees. Sometimes it reminds me of the North of Chile…anyway, on this sunny street with many ancient buildings as well as an amazing church (Recoleta Domínica Church), there is a spot where two museums and one library are located, the Patrimonial Center Recoleta Domínica.

The institution was founded in 2005 at the ancient Recoleta Domínica Convent, however, I would like to focus on the two museums: The Museum of Decorative Arts (MAD) and the other one which gives me goose bumps, The Dominican History Museum. The first one is not so big, but counts with more than 2’500 pieces in showcases. The objects go from weapons to pieces of china from different places in the world between “The Middle East and Latin America, from Ancient Greece to the present”, as it says on the website of the Patrimonial Center.

Although the MAD seems interesting, the must-see museum is the Dominican History Museum, as it exhibits religious objects full of visible ecclesiastic history. It exhibits reliquaries (including left-over bones of some priest!), decoration, tabernacles and a whole bunch of objects considered sacred by the Catholic Church, as well as paintings from Quito and makings of religious images of the 18th and 19th century.

Visiting this museum – not popular at all due to is location I think and ignored existence – and staying only in one of the dark and gloomy halls with all the reliquaries and ritual objects, make my hair stand on end. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any extrasensory experience when I visited the museum, though the guard told us several stories that made the visit a lot more interesting.

A place that used to be a convent, a dark museum full of spiritual and ritual objects…Can you imagine all the stories that exist around this place? From shades to sounds and religious believers that are wandering around the hallways. Fascinating. This museum should definitely be much popular.

Details:
Dominican History Museum
Recoleta 683
Metro station: Cerro Blanco
T: (562) 737 58 13
Tuesdays through Fridays from 10am to 5:30pm
Saturdays and Holidays from 10:30 to 2pm
Free Entrance

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