Municipal Historic Museum

A building that is over a hundred years old houses San Antonio Oeste’s Municipal Historic Museum. The objects on display represent the former days on which the pioneers came here to stay.

Lying a few meters away from the sea, its façade still preserves the English style typical of the period in which it was raised and traits of its high architectural value. It is made of wood and tin and was once owned by a civil servant operating at the first administration committee in the city.

We went around its rooms to observe the pieces that took us back to various historical periods. There is a space for the first nations, another one for railway and port activities and the third one shows elements from daily life, including kitchen, farming and other kinds of tools as well as garments, and documentation that gives proof of the development managed by the colonists.

Another sector shows fossil remains found in the region after the excavations carried out in the early twentieth century, when the first villages were settled by the sea.

The museum is part of a historic circuit we accessed immediately. We walked around the railway neighborhood, where the old railway station and the houses made of wood and tin which used to be inhabited by the railway workers may still be seen. Likewise, there is also a house built in 1908, once owned by the then town physician.

Then we arrived at what used to be engineer Guido Jacobacci’s house. This famed character took part in the construction of the Viedma / San Carlos de Bariloche railway branch. He also participated in the planning of dams, bridges and irrigation systems in the Río Negro Valley. For such reasons, his name is recognized in various southern districts and several streets are named after him.

The outing gave us a more complete idea of the origins of this district in Rio Negro which has already surpassed 100 years of life.