The Gran Poder House has been owned by the Pontifical University of San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca since 1957. However, the Charcas Colonial Museum dates back to 27 May 1939, when it was founded on initiative of the Athenaeum of Chuquisaca Fine Arts. It is now one of the country’s most important museums. The building of the viceregal period was financed by the Spanish Treasury before it became the property of the first marquis of Casa Palacio. It is known as the House of Great Power due to the Sevillian sculpture of the Christ that used to be venerated by parishioners from all over the city in the family’s private chapel on Fridays.
The Charcas Colonial Museum houses an outstanding collection of viceregal art. Paintings by European Mannerist and baroque masters as well as mestizo masterpieces from the Charcas, Potosi and Cuzco schools are displayed alongside famous local masters like Melchor Pérez de Holguín and Gaspar Miguel de Berrio. The museum also features silverware, sculptures as well as 17th to 19th century furniture.
The Contemporary Art Gallery mainly focuses on promoting artwork from the Department of Chuquisaca. There is also a collection of paintings by Bolivian artists of the 20th century like Cecilio Guzmán de Rojas of the nativist movement.
Archeology, folklore and ethnography make up the three thematic exhibitions of the Archaeological and Anthropological Museum that also spotlights Chuquisaca. The museum’s 3,000 pieces include pottery, weapons, sumptuary objects and different tools from roughly 3,500 years ago until the Spanish occupation and colonization. The mummified human remains and trepanned skulls from different ancient cultures of the pre-Columbian era as well as the reproductions of six rock painting sites are especially worth seeing.
