The Casa del Escribano Don Juan de Vargas occupies a two-storey colonial house just off Plaza de Bolívar, originally built in the 1580s for the city's notary public. The headline attraction is the painted Mudéjar-style ceilings — geometric patterns, fanciful creatures, and Christian iconography mixed together, painted directly onto the original wooden beams. Tunja has several houses with these painted ceilings (the Casa del Fundador is the most famous), but the Casa Juan de Vargas is arguably the best-preserved.
The museum exhibits include period furniture, colonial portraits, and artefacts from the city's early centuries. The guided tour is included with admission and gives useful context on the painted ceilings — the iconography is unusually rich and the symbolism is not always obvious without explanation.