MUSEO DE LAS CULTURAS DE OAXACA

The first Dominicans arrived in Oaxaca in 1528. In 1551 they obtained a land grant to build a convent within twenty years, but the work dragged on and on; it was finally inaugurated in 1608, although it was only partially completed. It functioned as such until the beginning of the 19th century, when it was constantly requisitioned by different military factions until Benito Juárez came to power and legitimized the installation of a military barracks. In 1902, the building was returned to the Church and the many stages of reconstruction and renovation continued until the 21st century, when it was transformed into the magnificent Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca. This wonderful museum has its origins in 1831, when the Museo Oaxaqueño was created and its natural history collection was housed in the Convento de San Pablo. Until 1933, this institution would acquire archaeological pieces and fossils, as well as a number of classical paintings endangered by the expropriation and expulsion of the country's religious orders. It then became the Museo Regional de Arqueología e Historia and moved to the Alameda, where it housed the remains and Mixtec treasures of jade and gold from the famous Tomb VII of Monte Alban (still visible in a special room). Installed in theEx-Convento Santo Domingo since 1972, it was not until 1994 that the army finally liberated the entire building and extensive renovation work took place.

Today , more than 14 magnificent rooms tell the story of the region and the country from prehistoric times to the present: the first nomadic inhabitants and the progressive sedentarization (10,000 BC to 200 AD); the flowering and greatness of the Zapotec civilization and the site of Monte Alban (200 to 900 AD); and the history of the region and the countryC.); the famous treasures of Tomb VII of Monte Alban, discovered in 1932; the time of the local lordships and the alliance with the Mixtecs (900 to 1521); the Military Conquest (16th century); the Spiritual Conquest (16th-17th centuries); the sustenance of local cultures (16th and 18th centuries) and the whole range of consequences of the national political upheavals on the state of Oaxaca (Reformation, Independence, Porfiriato, Revolution, etc.). A must-see in Oaxaca, for an archaeological and ethnological odyssey that should not be missed under any circumstances.