A group of workers paint white the roof of the future and renovated Reina Torres de Araúz Anthropological Museum, located near the colonial Casco Antiguo of Panama City, within the framework of a project that aims to revive one of the oldest and most abandoned buildings in the capital.
It is still dressed in the green fabrics and scaffolding characteristic of a construction site, and the workers, with their safety helmets, are the only ones who wander around the interior of this majestic building, which must be it is ready for next year after being closed since 2005.
Built between 1912 and 1913 under US administration -which had a presence in the country for almost the entire century XX-, this building housed the former headquarters of the Trans-Isthmic Railroad Station, which connects the Pacific and the Caribbean, until the 1960s, to later become, during the dictatorship of General Omar Torrijos, the Museum of Man Panamanian.
Some Doric columns -characterized by being thicker at the base and defined vertical lines- give shape to the neoclassical-style building, particular to American architecture of that time.
But it also has a peculiarity of the historical context with respect to the classic buildings of its style: it has two doors that segregated the upper class from the lower.
“The entrance is not available. in the center so that the classes are divided and they have two garage doors”, explained The architect of the national directorate of cultural heritage of the Ministry of Culture, Javier Edwards, told Efe.
Adequate for the constant traffic of visitors, the museum will house a a collection of 16,000 pieces of pre-Columbian pottery, gold work, lithics and ethnography, in addition to an auditorium, a multipurpose room and a roof terrace to exploit leisure and hospitality.< /p>
“These are different elements that modern museums have, so as also, for example, is the shelter building (underground) with a laboratory to conserve and maintain the pieces,” Anayansi Chichaco, the national director of Museums for the Ministry of Culture, told Efe.
The “persistence” of an anthropologist who gives it its name
It was the “persistence” of the Panamanian anthropologist and ethnographer Reina Torres de Araúz (1932-1982) who converted The old railway station was turned into a museum in 1976, when it opened. its doors.
Since 1976 the gallery was known as the Museum of the Panamanian Man, until 1983 when it was renamed the Reina Torres de Araúz Anthropological Museum in homage to the considered pioneer of Panamanian anthropology.
Creator of the Department of Historical Heritage at the National Institute of Culture (today the Ministry), Araúz published About a dozen books, one of them “Panamanian Pre-Columbian Art” (1972).
“She managed to the recovery of this building that was abandoned, “recalls Chichaco, who points out that, being one of the pioneers in the” rescue & quot; of Panama’s heritage, “created the first law that regulates it and prevents (thus) many parts from leaving the country”.
“That emphasis that she made in recovering this and other museums is a work of many years that we are currently trying to preserve,” said Chichaco.
The current rehabilitation works began in 2020 thanks to a loan of 14.4 million dollars from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the restoration of the main building, the exhibition halls, a new building of protection for the pieces, the urbanization of the surroundings and maintenance.
The building has survived the cruel humidity of Panama. -which sometimes borders on 90%-, years of abandonment and multiple closures.
The first in 1989 when the United States invaded Panama to capture General Manuel Antonio Noriega under the “Just Cause” operation; the second in the late 1990s; and the third in 2005.
“The building is in quite good condition, that is, they are not its own difficulties but rather those of its surroundings, especially in the infrastructure part because with the excavations we discovered different types of mixed drainage”, he explained. architect Edwards.
An “anchor project” to build a “creative district”
The museum aims to be an “anchor project” to develop others in the area, close to Plaza 5 de Mayo, the historic epicenter of protests in Panama, and Central Avenue, the capital’s main pedestrian street.
“The idea is The fact that the museum rehabilitates the area, together with the project behind it, which is a peddler’s market, is going to completely reactivate the block,” he pointed out. Chichaco.
The goal is to “create a creative district and connect it with other museums in the area,” such as the Afrontillano and Contemporary Art museums, located in the same area.