Bariloche Museums

Museo de la Patagonia - Patagonia Museum

It was inaugurated by the National Parks Administration on 17 March, 1940. The building is located in the East Wing of San Carlos de Bariloche Civic Center, a complex declared National Historic Monument.

The first director of the Museum was Enrique Amadeo Artayeta, from whom the National Parks Administration purchased the first anthropological collection exhibited there. Today, the museum has a vast ethnographic and historic collection, which has been growing over time thanks to donations, gifts and research.

Historical Guided Walks from the Civic Center and going into the Museum of Patagonia 

For updated information, news, activities and temporary exhibits, go to Museum Facebook.

Mount Otto Cable Car Complex Art Gallery

In its permanent collection, it has replicas of Michelangelo Buonarroti's three most outstanding sculptures, The David, The Pietà and The Moses, full size, traced directly from the Italian originals. There's also a night club, a small movie theater called Otto HouseMusic, and lots of shops to buy regional products.

Museo del Chocolate - Chocolate Museum

The Chocolate Museum is the newest museum, and the first in South America. There, you will learn about the history of the product that has most travelled throughout the world since America was discovered, and the one best liked by people from every culture. Get a taste of its history, from its origins to present date, guided by a group of promoters specialized in the sweetest product.

Learn why the Mayans called it "the food of the Gods" and Aztecs called it "cacahuatl", drink of kings and warriers. And find out why Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson was famous for entertaining the high society of Buenos Aires.

Museo Geológico Rosendo Pascual - Rosendo Pascual Geological Museum

The museum has five exhibit galleries, and has the largest sea invertebrate collection in the region, with 10,000 objects. It also features mammals in the tertiary-quaternary gallery.

The museum exhibits a complete humerus of an Argentinosaurio (the largest dinosaur in the world) and virtually complete skeleton on a Plesiosaurio (marine reptile). In addition, the Geology space offers a sample of crystals and rocks from the Patagonia and the world, while the Ornithology space exhibits 80 taxidermy birds from the Patagonia.

The museum has a small library and video-library for consultation. The museum team has discovered a gigantic ammonite (Cephalopods mollusk), the second largest in the world, currently under study in the Zapala Museum, Neuquén, and a new species of crab which was named after his discoverer: proterocarsinus corsolini.

Museo Paleontológico - Palentological Museum

This museum was established by Bariloche's Paleontology Association, which focuses on identifying and preserving the fossils in the region, particularly from the Northeast of Argentina's Patagonia. Among the different specimens, there is a complete Ichthyosaurus from Mount Lotena, which inhabited Jurassic seas 150 million years ago.

Additionally, you will find the reconstruction of a shark jaw from the Tertiary era approximately 22 million years old, as well as numerous insects, amphibians and plants. The museum also offers a rich collection of fossils which bear testimony to the exuberant variety of flora and fauna that dwelled in the area.

You will also find from 300-million old fossils to many organisms similar to contemporary ones. Among others, you will see the Archaeopteryx, which was the size of a crow and had feathers like birds, but yet retained its reptile characteristics, such as a jaw with teeth and long tail.

The museum also exhibits a dinosaur that inhabited the Cinco Saltos area during the Higher Cretaceous Period, 90 million years ago. This specimen stands out for its small size, since it is only 1.50 meters long.

Finally, you will have the chance of seeing a dinosaur egg up close, next to a picture showing its internal development.

Museum hours are Monday to Saturday, 4 pm to 7 pm, and entrance is free

Museo de los Viejos Colonos - Old Settlers Museum

When touring Short Circuit, one of the recommended places to be visited is Colonia Suiza.

The first settlers, in the first decades of the 20th century, came from Switzerland and France, which explains the characteristic style of the place. They cultivated the land and built their own homes for their families. Today, one of them hosts the Museo de los Viejos Colonos / Old Settlers Museum, in a house that dates back to 1937.

Muestra Ictícola - Fishing Museum / Club de Caza y Pesca - Hunting and Fishing Club

Located at the premises of the Hunting and Fishing Association. Ideal for those who love fishing. It features embalmed trouts, the famous 16-kg and 99-cm long Brown trout, the largest ever caught in the area.