Popol Vuh Museum

Since its donation in 1978, the university has housed one of the main collections of pre-Columbian art. The collection encompasses more than 5,000 objects, including masterpieces of the country’s Mesoamerican and colonial art. The university, through the museum, promotes the conservation, research, and dissemination of information on the archaeological and cultural heritage of Guatemala. It has a library of approximately 5,000 books specialized in archaeology, anthropology, history, and the history of Mesoamerican art, with special emphasis on Guatemala.

The permanent exhibition contains objects representative of all areas and periods of Guatemalan pre-Hispanic archeology. It is organized in chronological order, and covers from the first signs of human presence in what is now Guatemala, to the Spanish conquest.

The colonial period begins with the conquest, when Pedro de Alvarado arrived in Guatemala, in 1523, and ends in 1821, with independence from Spain. The exhibition includes silverware, imagery, majolica ceramics, and altarpieces.

Since 2004, lectures have been given by specialized researchers, and since 2006, school groups have been welcomed to attend workshops organized by the museum’s educational project.