Museums and galleries in Filadelfia

Museums and galleries in Filadelfia

1. See

   Jakob Unger Museum

   A very good museum spread over two buildings. The oldest building was built in 1933/34, shortly after the founding of the colony, and is one of the few remaining original administrative houses of the city and it was used for civil and religious ceremonies. It was converted into a museum in 1980 and named after Jakob Unger, a Mennonite specimen collector, who was the first of the pioneers to perform a scientific study of the fauna of the Chaco from 1950 to 1975. The first building is devoted to Mennonite history, and there are many artifacts from the original colonists including the printing press for the newspaper Mennoblatt, which is still published today. There is also a collection of relics from the Chaco War. Out front stands a large saw, the first machine in the community saw mill. In the second building is the natural history section, which houses an impressive collection of stuffed animals from the Chaco, including a jaguar, armadillo, coatí, puma, anteater, wolf, tapir, tree sloth, skunk and a boa constrictor. There are also 210 out of 250 bird species found in the area, and a large section devoted to insects. Items are well-labeled, so visiting the museum is an excellent way to learn about the region's fauna. The back room is dedicated to the various indigenous groups the predated the Mennonite's arrival to the Chaco and include utilitarian objects, textiles, feathered headdresses, handicrafts, weapons, and ceramics. The museum has a pleasant garden, the Plaza de los Recuerdos, with several examples of the quirky palo borracho tree. In the park there is also the First Monument erected in town, a small obelisk, placed in 1955, on the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the colony.

   Mon-Sat 07:00-11:30, Mon-Fri 14:00-16:00·Free

2. See

   Museo Escolar

   school museum

   The old school building which opened its doors in 1936. One part of the exhibit is about the elementary school depicting how life was in the first school to open its doors in the Chaco wilderness. Furniture from that time, books and other school materials, including blackboards and markers, are shown. Also pictures of the different schools in the nearby settlements, teachers list, and school statistics are available. Another exhibit presents technological development in the school throughout the years such as writing and typing machines, projectors, and a copy machine.

3. See

   Museo Hospitalario

   hospital museum

   This museum is housed in the first structure built on the current hospital premises, a little house dating from 1932. With just two rooms it was used as a doctor's office, procedures room, maternity ward, laboratory, and eventually as the hospital director's office. It showcases photos depicting the hospital's history and exhibits furniture and medical instruments brought from Germany in 1931. The museum is named after Dr. Wilhelm Kaethler, one of the first Paraguay-born Mennonite doctors who began to establish a medical practice for the colony's residents and their indigenous neighbours in the 1950s.

4. See

   Museo Industrial

   Located where the original peanut silo was built in 1957. The building today is like a symbol of the industrial revolution that the Mennonites started in the 1950s and continue today. In 1958 a peanut oil refinery started operating in the building which, with its three stories, was the tallest in the colony, and it became part of an emblematic industrial park, a novelty for Paraguay in those years. The museum showcases the old cauldron and agricultural machinery used in the process of peanut collecting and industrialization. It's considered the foundation stone of what made Filadelfia the economic power that it is today.

5. See

   Museo Knelsen-Haus

   The museum exhibits what a typical house from colonial times looked like, including an old kitchen and some original household appliances. It was built in 1948 by Jakob Knelsen. It was the only hotel in Filadelfia for many years. In 2002, at the initiative of some citizens the house was renovated and converted into a household museum.

6. See

   Ruedas Pioneras

   An open air museum whose purpose is to remember the means of communication in the early settlement years. The initial Fernheim colonists had to travel from Puerto Casado, 215 km to the west on the river Paraguay, covering one part of the journey in a narrow gauge train, and the last 90 km had to be with wagons pulled by donkeys and mules and later with tractors and trucks. The Puerto Casado railway was a key means of transport and for colonists to do commerce during their first three decades in the Chaco.

Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to Filadelfia (CC BY-SA 4.0).