Wonderful museum. Highly informative. Amazing collection, very well preserved. New building is spectacular. A Do Not Miss Costa Rican experience.
This is the NEW Jade Museum. (Opened in 2014.) Walking toward it I expected far less. Inside you find a very modern museum on five floors presenting one of the largest Pre-Columbian collections in the world. There are tableaus, interactive displays, touch screen monitors, items you can touch, etc. The museum is bilingual for the most part. There are presentations aimed specifically at children. Several criticisms: the large, open atrium is stark. No color and no hint at what treasures the galleries hold. To call it a "Jade Museum" is a bit misleading. Only part of the museum is jade. There is also pottery, stone sculpture, etc. Many of the artifacts are not dated. They are arranged thematically, not chronologically. All in all, worth a visit.
Really lovely display, made more interesting by placing the jade pieces in context of their human use. The Day and Night sections in particular are quite beautiful and have some engaging activities for kids though all the areas had something for them apart from the first. (I think the entry level bit is just intended as a very brief experience before you get to the real deal.). Not the kind of museum where you stop to admire every piece but definitely worth finding!
If your downtown, you should go- $15 will occupy 2-3 hrs of your time easy. Artifacts to at least 1500BC. Themed rooms.
Although I really thicket the entrance ticket is to expensive, the museum is very mice and there are many beautiful jade exibits to see. I didn't regret paying that much money since I saw soany beautiful pieces and learned a lot about the history of the indeginous people.
Amazing museum. Just beautiful. Plan to spend at least two hours. My favorite thing was the holographic figures making cloth. The first holographic display that I have seen in a museum. The installations are spectacular. Tons of technology and information for people of all ages.
Brand new museum where you CAN follow the history of the precolombian Life in CR and the importance of stone work including jade in their spiritual and normal Life.
After being cornered in a little space borrowed from the INS (National Insurance Institute) last year got its very own building right in the heart of the city. Dont be fooled by the stark, minimal facade. The place is full of treasures: pottery, jade, sculptures, anything handcrafted by the inhabitants of Costa Rica hundreds of years ago. They made an effor in order to make the museum experience a bit more interactive, but the biggest feat was to show such a LARGE collection (and Im not talking about the phalii, lol). If you want to learn about the costarican natives arts and crafts, this is the place, you will find the details inspiring.
I found the first floor of this museum moderately interesting particularly seeing various colour of jade side by side but couldn't contemplate another 3 floors of jade. This museum trip was organised by our tour company and I am sure it would appeal to many people but I would recommend the pre-Columbian gold museum over this one.
To call it the jade museum is really misleading as jade is only on part of one of the 6 floors. It's mainly a social anthropological museum. Cafe wasn't open and didn't look like it had ever been.