With the Casa Presidential and Catedral Vieja off limits, the only building along the Plaza de la Revolucción that you can really explore inside and out is the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura, an imposing building whose Greco-Roman columns are partially obscured by giant pink Sandinista posters. Turn right when you enter the building to buy tickets to the Museo Nacional de Nicaragua Dióclesiano Chaves (open from Tuesday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.). The museum has a US$4 entrance fee (taking pictures or video costs C$20 and C$50 extra, respectively), which includes a guided tour in either Spanish or English. The guides will take you on a quick jaunt back outside, to learn a bit about the history of the plaza, and then walk you through exhibits on Nicaragua’s geological, archeological, political and cultural history. The museum’s collection includes stone statues from Ometepe, a mural by Mexican artist Arnold Belkin and one of the Acahualinca footprints; a small area is devoted to photographs of Managua, before and after the December, 1972 earthquake. The exhibits are not as extensive as you might expect for a national museum, but they are well labeled and manage to cover a lot of ground (check out the wooly mammoth teeth!), which makes the Museo Nacional a good place to whet your appetite for further Nicaragua explorations.

Location:

Managua, Nicaragua

Museum

Getting There

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Price Description:

Relative price: Budget

Travel Skills: None

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By Rachael Hanley

A sometime newspaper journalist with a heavy side of wanderlust, Rachael moved to Quito in November to work on the V!VA staff. She is currently...

Created: 11 Jun 2009

Updated: 11 Jun 2009