The Founding Museum stands on the site of the original colonial cabildo (town hall), destroyed in the 1861 earthquake. Excavations here uncovered the foundations of the colonial city, and the museum is built around them — glass walkways allow visitors to look down onto the exposed ruins below. Exhibits cover the indigenous Huarpe people, the Spanish founding of the city in 1561, colonial life, and the earthquake. It is one of the best small history museums in western Argentina, and an essential stop for understanding why the city looks the way it does.
Museo Fundacional
Colonial ruins under glass walkways tell Mendoza's earthquake story