City Museum, Colonial museum in Centro Histórico, Ecuador.

The City Museum is a cultural museum in Quito's Historic Center, housed in a large complex with multiple courtyards and exhibition halls. The space displays objects, maps, and ceramics that document how people lived in the city across different centuries.

The San Juan de Dios Hospital operated in these buildings for some 400 years before the City Museum was founded there on 23 July 1998. The complex was restored in 1995 with the same materials as the originals, and the former hospital is part of the UNESCO-listed historic centre of Quito.

The displays show how Quito's residents lived and worked from the 1500s through the 1800s, revealing their daily habits and beliefs through objects they left behind. Walking through the galleries helps you understand how the city and its people changed over time.

The museum occupies the former San Juan de Dios Hospital on García Moreno Street, between Morales and Rocafuerte, in Quito's colonial center. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 09:30 to 17:30. The complex covers 10,200 square meters around four courtyards, so allow time to cross between the ten exhibition halls.

In July 2020, 69 artifacts were privately returned to Ecuador for display at the museum. A London diplomat and art collector had taken them abroad in the 1960s; the group mixes Catholic icons from the Spanish conquest era with objects thought to be Pre-Columbian.