The Galería de la Historia is a small, charming museum built around a sequence of detailed dioramas illustrating moments in the history of Concepción and the Biobío region — the arrival of the Spaniards, the Mapuche wars, the great earthquakes, the founding of the university. The miniature figures and scenes are unusually well-executed, and the place is a favourite among local schoolchildren.
The museum sits at the foot of Cerro Caracol, in Parque Ecuador, and entry is free. It takes about 45 minutes to walk through; pair it with a climb up the hill behind. Captioning is mostly in Spanish, but the visual storytelling carries the experience for non-Spanish speakers.