Guadalajara – Museo Regional de Guadalajara

This museum, in the centre of town, is dedicated to the history of the Guadalajara region. It takes its mission very seriously. It covers everything from the prehistoric to the modern day. This runs the risk of being just a great big pile of junk, but I’m happy it wasn’t.

The museum is housed in another grand old Guadalajaran building. It’s full of lovely courtyards and grand, imposing pillars galore. On the ground floor, are some artefacts from prehistory. The biggest exhibit is the complete skeleton of a mammoth found in the area. It’s surrounded by various other bits and bobs from other fossilised critters.

Right next door, is a wonderful set of pre Colombian artefacts. As the museum winds its way around the ground floor, the modernity of the artefacts increases. Some of these are very impressive. Great workmanship and some very interesting designs. The pieces are much more interesting than most of the tat that is sold in the shops. The locals should really look to their past for inspiration, rather than just creating yet another variation of a fat mariachi singer. Oh well.

The top floor of the museum is dedicate to modern times and is less interesting. There’s a whole bunch of portraits of brave independence fighters. To me, it seems that once the revolution was under way, every man and his dog joined in for the prospect of being remembered as a revolutionary. There seems to be far too many revolutionaries and not quite enough revolution!

There’s some interesting displays on farming and tequila production, but nothing tops the great displays downstairs.