Gold Museum in Bogotá

It is finally time to share and comment about the gold museum experience in Bogotá. Our feedbacks inform us that for most visitors, it is not only mandatory to include this visit in every city tour but also for some, even the Highlight of the day! The gold museum is only a couple of minutes away from the hotels in the old city (Casa Platypus, Casa Deco, Hotel Muisca, Hotel de la Opera, Augusta, etc.) it is also easy to arrive to the museum with the Transmilenio transport system (Station: Museo de Oro).

The gold museum exhibits the biggest pre-colombian collection of discovered gold pieces in the world until our days. We should take between 1-2 hours to admire the about 25.000 gold artifacts but most important, to interpret its significance.

The museum is distributed in four principal rooms that concern the following themes:

1. The making process of the gold objects: the ancient societies of Colombia had amazing techniques for searching and furthermore, working the metal. Gold would be in many cases melted and in ceramic containers casted, the metal was also manipulated with other methods such as hammering, other approaches will be explained by your guide.

2. The Gold artifacts from the different regions of Colombia: from south to north we will be guided through Colombia’s most important indian tribes: Nariño, Calima, San Agustin, Tierradentro, Tolima, Quimabaya, Muisca, Zenu, Tayrona and some more.

3. We enter to an area that is secured with a heavy and antique safe door. The guide shows us the objects that the chieftain used to convert themselves in animals, to travel along time and to communicate with the spirits of nature.

4. Offering: gold represented to the indians a spiritual value rather than a material one. In Guatavita (70 km away from Bogotá) for example, gold artifacts were thrown in the middle of a lagoon as an offer to the sun. This ritual is directly connected with the Dorado Legend.  

  


In our opinion, the gold museum must be included in the program of every visit to Bogotá.