Francisco Moreno Museum of Patagonia facts for kids
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The Francisco P. Moreno Museum of Patagonia is a cool place to learn about nature and different cultures. It's located in the Civic Center of Bariloche, Argentina.
History of the Museum
The museum first opened its doors on March 17, 1940. It was part of a bigger project to open the Bariloche Civic Center. The government wanted to help the town of Bariloche, which was a ski resort in the Río Negro Province, grow and become more popular.
The museum, along with the Domingo Sarmiento Public Library and the Bariloche City Hall, was designed by an architect named Ernesto de Estrada. The buildings are made from polished green tuff (a type of rock), cypress and fitzroya wood, and have slate roofs. They all face a central plaza paved with flagstones.
What You Can See: Museum Collections
Most of the museum's collections were given by the National Parks Administration. The museum is named after Francisco Moreno, a famous Argentine explorer and scientist. The museum was set up in a similar way to the La Plata Museum, which Moreno also helped create in 1888.
The museum was updated and made more modern in 1992. Its collections are divided into several interesting halls:
- Natural Sciences: This hall has a collection of fossils and cool rocks and minerals.
- Prehistory: Here you can see informative dioramas (3D models) and displays about how layers of earth tell us about the past. You'll also find tools and items from Stone Age cultures that lived in the area long ago.
- Aboriginal History: This section shows displays about the Mapuche, Selknam, Tehuelche, and Yámana cultures. You can see tools they used, including some for astronomy (studying stars).
- Regional History: Learn about the history of Patagonia from the early days of Spanish colonization of the Americas to the time of the Argentine War of Independence.
- The Conquest of the Desert: This exhibit shows the tools, weapons, and methods used during conflicts between the Argentine government and native peoples in the 1800s. It also displays items used by native leaders, called caciques, in their efforts to protect their lands.
- San Carlos de Bariloche: This part focuses on the local history of Bariloche. It covers how the town was started in 1885, how it grew after 1905 with help from Public Works Minister Ezequiel Ramos Mexía, and its later development.
- National Parks: Discover documents, diagrams, and maps about how National parks in Argentina were created. Bariloche's Lake Nahuel Huapi was actually the first national park in Argentina!
- Francisco Moreno: This exhibit honors the museum's namesake. He was a well-known surveyor and academic who donated Lake Nahuel Huapi and its surroundings in 1903. This donation helped create Argentina's very first national park.
The museum also has a special hall for temporary exhibits, an auditorium for events, a workshop, a library, and archives. There are also facilities for curators (people who take care of the collections) and researchers.
The entire Bariloche Civic Center, including the museum, was named a National Historic Monument in 1987. This means it's a very important historical site!
See also
In Spanish: Museo de la Patagonia para niños
