Atacama Regional Museum

The Atacama Regional Museum began life in 1973 as a community initiative to bring together collections held by different local institutions, the municipal government and some individuals. Originally housed in the residence of the Regional Governor.

The building

Since 1982, the Museum has occupied the former house of the local Matta-Goyenechea family, some of whose members were prominent national politicians in the nineteenth century as well as being prominent in the mining and railway businesses.

Used by the family until 1940, the house, which was built in 1832 in the neoclassical style, has a central courtyard surrounded by a gallery with wooden columns. In itself, it provides an interesting insight into the life of this important local family.

Inside the Museum

The Museum’s permanent exhibition covers topics that include:

• Indigenous peoples. A model of the region shows its geography and topography with the settlements of its different indigenous peoples over time as well as objects and artefacts from these different cultures.
• Modern history of the region. This collection includes objects representative of Atacama's mining boom and the War of the Pacific, especially the role of the Atacama I and II battalions.
• Life in the nineteenth century. A recreation of the salon of a well-off local family includes original furniture and, on the walls, portraits of the Matta Goyenechea family as well as of José Francisco Gana, the Regional Governor during the economic boom when the port of Caldera and the Copiapó Railway Company were founded. 
• Natural history. The Museum also an important collection of specimens related to the region’s native fauna, paleontology and mineralogy.
• Heritage Library. This comprises over 10,000 volumes in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Latin and German, mostly dating back to the second half of the nineteenth century but also including a text from 1609 with ordinances for the Church in Colonial America, which is the oldest book in northern Chile.

A recent addition to the Museum is the exhibition, “The Rescue that Moved the World", about the rescue in 2010 of 33 miners trapped in the San José mine, not far Copiapó. It includes the note "We are well in the shelter, the 33 of us", sent up by the miners once drilling equipment reached them, and the Fénix 2 capsule in which they were brought to the surface.