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 Estimated reading time: 2 min. |
 Karina Jozami  Jorge González |
The recently restored Oceanographic and Natural Sciences Museum re opened its gates at chalet Pujol, one of the most emblematic houses in the city. Located on a privileged corner from where a beautiful panoramic sight of Puerto Madryn may be caught, the building was refurbished with a modern conception that, in addition to preserving its architectural value, shows the various pieces of its heritage.
The exhibition has been organized in various rooms and ranges from the history of Madryn, paying special consideration to the Welsh immigrants, to the wide ecological diversity in the geography of Chubut.
Thus, the integration managed by these colonists with the local native peoples may be observed in this room. |
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On the other hand, a tour around the rooms displaying fish, invertebrates, sea mammals, birds and cetaceans give evidence that it is the sea littoral that outlines the eastern border of the city. This natural environment offers valuable resources exploited in this region through fishing, as far as production is concerned, and diving and wildlife mapping, as regards tourism.
Last but not least, the rooms destined to geology and botany enable visitors to have a complete panorama of the steppe and the Patagonian shore.
The Castle
Known as “Madryn’s Castle”, Pujol Palace was built in 1917 by pioneers Agustín Pujol and Anita Howel. Spanish Pujol arrived on the shores of Chubut in 1883 and settled down as a local merchant and supplier, where he also performed an important communal task when he built roads that joined the emerging hamlets that would later turn into Telsen and Madryn. |
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With a strong neoclassical style, the stairs of carved stone steps and the braces that join the ceiling and the wall stand out.
In 1971, the Pujol’s house passed onto the hands of the provincial government in order to become a museum and later be declared cultural provincial heritage.
At present, the boats that enter the gulf may still be spotted from the tower. |
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we recommend that you visit this place in order to learn about the history of one of the first buildings to be raised in Puerto Madryn. |
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Madryn’s Oceanographic Museum is the only one in Argentina to have such a name. The new stage of this institution expresses the museologic perspective of integrating the heritage of the building with the collections displayed there in a didactic fashion.
The re-opening exhibition, “The Man and The Sea”, shows the various relations men have established with this particular ecological environment which represents all the districts that make up the Valdés Peninsula shire. |
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