Museo Histórico Regional de Ensenada / Regional Historical Museum of Ensenada

On May 15, 1995, the first permanent exhibition Peoples and Cultures of Ancient Mexico was inaugurated at the Regional Historical Museum of Ensenada; the building that houses the museum is unique in the state for the elements of its construction: adobe, stone and wood; it served as government offices, military barracks, municipal prison, hospital and school. The permanent assemblies of its six rooms cover the history of Baja California; different topics about the life, landscape, culture, and history of Baja California are addressed from its first settlers, contact with missionaries, and a semblance of current native languages; one of the rooms is dedicated to the paleontology of the state. On display, there are 214 pieces including ethnographic, archaeological, and paleontological. Follow them on Facebook for upcoming events here.

The original architecture of the military barracks can currently be seen in the high walls of its facade, built completely in adobe, with turrets, tows, an entrance gate, and a mural made around 1912 that alludes to the founding myth of Tenochtitlan, the eagle devouring a snake. The seal provided by the prison era appears above all in the guardhouses and the paintings of the prisoners in the area of the crujías. The building that houses the museum is the oldest civil public construction in the state of Baja California, 1886; It was made, unlike the vast majority of ancient constructions in Ensenada, based on adobe. The building has been a military barracks, hospital, school, and prison. It is the only museum in the Baja California coastal area through which the preservation of the region’s national heritage is strategically promoted.

The State Government expropriated the property on November 10, 1991, transferring it to the National Institute of Anthropology and History, through its Center in Baja California. After a long litigation, the expropriation was confirmed in October 1993, and on November 26 of this same year, the opening of this historical monument took place, rescued to convert it into the Regional Historical Museum of Ensenada. On May 15, 1995, municipal president of Ensenada Óscar Sánchez del Palacio inaugurated the museum’s first permanent exhibition within the city’s anniversary festivities: “People and Cultures of Ancient Mexico.” From then on it has functioned as a museum.