Overwhelmed by the number of museums in Cuenca? These museums depict the history and tradition of Cuenca and Ecuador. Most of these vast permanent collections are free to enter, so you can explore Cuenca’s museum marvels without flashing the cash.
Pumapungo Museum and Ruins
Pumapungo is the most recommended museum to visit. If you can visit only one museum then let this be the one. Museo de Pumapungo exhibits the historical development of the region Azuay and Ecuador through the Cañari, Incan and Colonial cultures. The museum also has five temporal exhibit rooms and one room for emerging local and international artists.
The Incan ruins are located next to the Museum.
Open From: Tuesdays to Fridays – 0800 – 1700 | Saturdays and Sundays : 1000-1600 | Closed on Mondays |
Entrance Fees: FREE
Straw Hat Museum
Panama hats are traditionally brimmed hats of Ecuadorian origin. Straw hat museum has several rooms that describes the process of hat manufacturing. There is a big store where visitors can buy customized hats. Hats are sold from USD 25.
Open From: Tuesdays to Fridays : 0830 – 1830 | Saturdays : 0930-1700 | Sundays : 0930 – 1330 | Closed on Mondays |
Entrance Fees: FREE
Prohibido Centro Cultural
The Prohibido Centro Cultural is off the beaten track. It’s an extreme art museum. It’s dedicated to the support and dissemination of all the alternative cultural manifestations in their different genres of expression: music, theatre, painting, sculpture, video art, etc. Be prepared for giant hands on the sides of the toilets and paintings of bleeding humans around doorways.
Open From: Mondays to Saturdays : 0900-2100 | Sundays : 0900-1400 |
Entrance Fees: USD 1
Manuel Agustin Landivar Museum and Ruins:
The museum exhibits pieces from Cañari, Inca and Spanish periods. The archaeological ruins from the three eras is located right next to the museum of which the Stone mills built during the Spanish rule is an interesting exhibit.
Open From: Tuesdays to Fridays: 1000-1830 | Saturdays: 1000-1400 |
Entrance Fees: FREE
Museum Of Indigenous Cultures
This museum is specialized on Ecuadorian archaeology. It offers cultural acts and library services. Museum of Indigenous cultures has been regarded as an encounter with fifteen fundamental monuments of the country’s archaeology. It keeps the document fund which preserves data, images and unique documents related with the history of Cuenca and Ecuador.
Open From: Mondays to Fridays: 0900 – 18:00 | Saturdays: 0900-1400 | Closed on Sundays |
Entrance Fees: USD 4
