Camín Cosquín Museum

Camín Cosquín Museum - best known by the inhabitants as the "stone museum"- is the product of Don Arturo Ferrareto's hard work. He is the museum owner and founder and has been enlarging his cultural patrimony since 1975.

Inside the building, which was especially designed to show these type of collections, there are rocks coming from different parts of the country and from abroad.

You will be delighted to observe the biggest collection of Rodocrocita ( Argentinean National Stone) which has been brought from Aconquija Mountain Range ( in Catamarca Province) and which quality and beauty is unique in the world, especially for being in a stalactite way.

Inside the museum, there are panels explaining the origin of minerals and rocks as well as the processes they have undergone to appear as they do today. There is also a geological account of Planet Earth and of mineralized fossils.

Among the minerals and rocks outstanding in the museum, you will find Quartz, Rock Crystal, Amethyst, Smoked Quartz, different varieties of Beryl such as Aquamarine, Emerald and Heliodor which are real natural works of art.

Objects are shown in showcases that let you observe even the smallest detail of the collection since they have excellent light and contrast.

Regarding Crystals, in the museum there are green, violet, blue and yellow Fluorites; Calcite from deposits in "Laguna Brava" area which belong to Mr. Ferraretto.

In the room showing archaeology and anthropology , you can appreciate diggings that used to belong to prehispanic inhabitants who settled in the valleys and mountains of Córdoba and San Luis Provinces.

Here, the showcases are in a chronological sequence from the first groups - hunters collectors- who got to this region 10,000 years ago to agro-potter cultures which were more organized like Comechingones and Sanavirones.

This show is completed with valuable archaeological pieces in ceramics, stone, bone and metal which belonged to native communities that developed their cultures in the Northwest Region of Argentina.

Camín Cosquín Museum also shows fossil rests of fauna and flora from the area belonging to old geologic times such as the glyptodont ( giant armadillo), the smylodont ( saber teeth tiger), the megathere ( kind of giant bear), the toxodon and a sample of fosil invertebrates from Patagonia.

When you finish the visit, you can buy fine precious stones which are decorated and mounted to collect and take as a present to remember your visit to Cosquín " Stone Museum".