MUSEUMS

Museo de Bellas Artes de Valparaiso (Fine Arts Museum)
This museum has an important collection of paintings dating from 1893. Significant works by Chilean artists such as Valenzuela Puelma, Camino Mori, Pacheco Altamirano, Juan Francisco Gonzalez, Pedro Lira and Cosme San Martín are on display; and works by Europeans artists of the standing of Rousseau, Boudin, or the Dutchman Jengkine embellish its halls, built in 1916.
The museum, declared a National Monument in 1979, is housed in the beautiful Baburizza palace, a building or art nouveau style, built in 1916 on designs by architects Renato Schiavon and Arnaldo Barison in the Paseo Yugoslavo on Mt Alegre, accessed by the El Peral cableway.
Museo Naval y Marítimo (Naval and Maritime Museum)
This is the safe repository of items, documents relics and testimonies on the creation and development of Chile's navy in the 19th century. The building - inaugurated on March 5, 1893 by the President Jorge Montt Alvarez- was the headquarters of the Naval School until 1967. Now it has an auditorium, together with an archive and a historical library.

Museo de Historia Natural de Valparaiso (Natural History Museum)
It contains over 110,000 items, classified as Natural Science, Archaeology or Historical Heritage. It also has a library and aside from its cultural value, the building which is in the "Palacio Lyon" has its own history and was already considered to be a National Monument in 1929.
The Palace (whose frontispiece displays ornamented columns up to the access stairway) belonged to Santiago Lyon, who was related to the Scottish Royal Family, and was built by the German Count Carlos Von Moitke, who also directed the construction of the first Naval School.

Open-air museum
A stairway on Aldunate Street, atop Mt Bellavista, is the access to an urban area where walls have become immense mural paintings, and house-fronts have become great "canvases" flooded with color in an outburst of creative activity by a number of Chilean artists.
The pleasing "street museum" extends along Pasaje Quimera, Pasteur, Rudolph and Ferrari streets. The murals were painted by students of Valparaiso's Catholic University Art Institute, and sponsored by Valparaíso City council.

Galería Municipal de Arte (Municipal Art Gallery)
This is sited in the basement of the "Palacio Lyon" (Condell 1550). It has stone and brick walls and vaulting in the ceilings.

Paseo 21 de Mayo
This is one of the city's best places to have a view of Valparaiso bay. To enjoy it, one has to take the "Ascensor Artillería" or walk along Artillería and Orompello streets.

Ascensor Artillería (Mt Artillería Funicular)
Built in 1893 to transport members of the old Naval School, it has been declared a National Monument. It is one of the most prominent funiculars in the city, gives service to a large sector of "Playa Ancha". Its go from Plaza Wheelwright to "Paseo 21 de Mayo", on the Artillería Mountain. It is the property of the Valparaiso mechanical elevator company.

Another interesting place is "Muelle Barón" (Barón Wharf), which connects the port to the city and also offers a splendid view of Valparaiso from below.