Map - Museo Popol Vuh (Museo Popol Vuh)

The Museo Popol Vuh (Popol Vuh Museum) is home to one of the major collections of Maya art in the world. It is located on the campus of the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Zone 10, Guatemala City and is known for its extensive collection of pre-Columbian and colonial art of the Maya culture.

The Popol Vuh Museum is a private, nonprofit, scientific institution supported by its own funds and external donations. The museum is operated by a Board of Directors of citizens of Guatemala interested in the preservation and public display of the exhibits. One of its missions is to provide an educational focus for people who want to see and learn about the pre-Columbian past of Guatemala with the preservation, research, and diffusion of information.

Although the museum is well known for its funerary ceramic art, the collection includes a variety of portable stone sculptures, especially from the Preclassic period, and from the coast and adjacent highlands. The section on Maya pottery includes some of the best preserved Maya vases and bowls.

The origin of the museum dates back to 1975, when Mr. Jorge Castillo hired Maro Tejada, a student of archaeology at la Universidad del Valle, to classify his extensive collection. After it was classified and set up for display in chronological order and it was opened up to the public in zone 1. After Mr.Castillo died in 1977, he decided to donate the collection to the Universidad Francisco Marroquín. The museum was created originally in 1977 to house the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Castillo and now forms part of a beautiful architectural complex of the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City. Jorge and Ella Castillo donated most of their collection of archaeological and colonial pieces in 1978 which are the basis of the Popol Vuh Museum today. They began their private collection of archaeological and colonial objects years before they established founding in 1977. The first location was in La Reforma Ave and 16th street, Guatemala City, but later moved to the Galerias Reforma building in Zone 9 in Guatemala City after three years. Sixteen years later, it was moved to Zone 10, where it stands today.

The museum is named after the Popol Vuh, a book written soon after the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. It narrates myths and pre-Columbian history of the Quiche, whose kings dominated great part of the Western plateau of Guatemala. The collection at the Popol Vuh Museum includes many objects related to the narratives of the Popol Vuh book.