Palacio Taranco is a grand early-20th-century mansion in Ciudad Vieja, built for the Taranco Ortiz family and now home to the Museum of Decorative Arts. The rooms display European furniture, paintings, sculpture, Roman amphoras, and other decorative objects, so the visit works both as a house museum and as a look at Montevideo's old elite.
The building itself is a large part of the draw. Its preserved salons, staircases, and period details make it one of the better places in the old city to see how the port's wealth translated into architecture.