Visit to Dr. Federico Escalada Regional Museum

Federico Escalada Museum is a must visit in Río Mayo when it comes to learning about the history of this small but fine-looking city. Its rooms treasure various attractions for visitors.

Educational and amusing, this museum works inside the House of Culture of Río Mayo, where many pieces of high symbolical value are kept. These items represent the history of a large part of southern Chubut and therefore of what is known as southern Patagonia.

Some of the pieces that delight visitors include a typewriter from 1895, the first desks used at Río Mayo’s schools, arrow points, tragüiles and instruments used by Doctor Federico Escalada.

Another room contains the microcinema. This space is used to project tourist, cultural and educational videos, shown according to the events organized. These projections enable the school community and the entire population to enjoy a time of recreation, learning and debate that will enrich their vision on society.

Furthermore, not only are exhibitions organized at this venue but courses and workshops are also dictated, such as the Spanish Dances Municipal Workshop, the Guitar Municipal Workshop and the Folklore Municipal Workshop.

The building housing the museum also has high historical value as the first primary school in Río Mayo used to function there, namely: School No. 72.

This building lodges thousands of intertwined stories that date back to over 75 years ago. The history of the old school has crucial moments, like when it was planned to be destroyed due to the bad conditions of the building. Various celebrities in the district started to work in a restoration project keeping its original structure and charming beauty.

The restoration works on this deteriorated building started in 1996 and finished in March, 1997. On March 23, a moving act was attended by the first students at the school, the local and provincial authorities and the local denizens. Thus, along with Dr. Federico Escalada’s daughter, the House of Culture and one of the main attractions in town, Dr. Federico Escalada Regional Museum, were finally inaugurated.