All that Glitters is Silver

With Mapuche Stamp and Signature

Museo de la Alta Frontera (High border Museum) began to operate under the name of Centro Cultural Libertador Bernardo O´Higgins in 1990. It was devoted to showing general visitors permanent exhibitions of the best known traditions and manifestations of the Mapuche culture.

The museum houses a display of Araucana silverware from the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries, part of the collection owned by the outstanding citizen of Los Ángeles Raúl Morris Von Bennewitz, which enables visitors to observe not only a varied number of unique pieces but also a different way to think art.

Accompanied by excellent photographs that reflect the way these jewels were worn, the patterns of these pieces of jewellery aim at the particular cosmovision this ethnic group had in those days.

The religious thought, metaphysics, myths and magic may be seen translated into most of the pieces, among which some engravings and common elements, such as small plates, tubes, casques and chains stand out. Many of them are significantly large and heavy.

Other Collections, Other Relics

There are other rooms inside the museum which have been specially designed for the visitor to discover other aspects of the same primitive people.

A room devoted to ceramics displays pieces of incredible antropological value dating back from 600 and 1300 AD, all of them found throughout the coutry, from the Pacific Ocean to the Andes Mountain Range.

The room housing the basket collection is one of the sections most admired by visitors in general. They may observe the work done by these peoples with vegetable fiber in pieces that show the various shapes and use given to each of these very valuable pieces.

Various works made in wood and leather, collections of saints and religious images, textile pieces such as blankets, carpets, chamales and several trarihues of varied shapes, sizes and colors are some of the objects also displayed in other rooms of the museum.

These rooms are ideal to be visited, to get lost in time and let oneself think about the way our primitive ancestors used to live in these lands.