Description of the attraction
The building of the current National Museum of Belize was built from 1854 to 1857 and was a departmental royal prison. The complex is located on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in Gabourel Lane.
The walls were built of English bricks, which were used as ballast on ships. Each window in the building had a sign on which the name of the person in the cell was written. In 1910, due to the increase in prisoners, the premises were expanded by 9, 14 m. The main entrance to the Belize Museum would once have been the central corridor of the prison, in which public executions of those sentenced to death took place. Several fires happened every year in the institution, up to the transfer of the prison premises to another building, in Hattieville.
In 1998, the Belizean government transferred the old prison to the museum. Over the next two years, the buildings were completely renovated with financial assistance from Mexico and Taiwan, and the official opening of the National Museum of Belize took place on February 7, 2002. It displays exhibits, Mayan artifacts and research over 3,000 years of Mayan history, colony history, colonial life, and cultural artifacts collected from the country's many ethnic groups.
For inspection are offered masterpieces of the Maya Indians, collections of stamps and coins, postcards and photographs from the times of the colonization of the country, unique plants (log wood and mahogany), insects, the famous liquor. An excursion to a real prison cell is conducted. The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions.
