Museo de la Independencia - Casa del Florero

The Museo de la Independencia - Casa del Florero at Calle 11 No. 6-94 on the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá, Colombia, is a national museum dedicated to the independence period. Its home is the colonial house of the Spanish merchant José González Llorente, where a quarrel over a borrowed flower vase on 20 July 1810 started the popular uprising that led to the creation of the first junta in Santa Fe. The museum opened in 1960 for the sesquicentennial of the event and has been restored and redesigned since. The exhibition is organised chronologically. It starts with colonial society and the Enlightenment ideas circulated by figures such as Antonio Nariño, continues with the events of 20 July, the first juntas and the early republic, and covers the Spanish reconquest of 1816 and the campaign to Boyacá in 1819. Its most famous object is the vase, displayed with the documents of the first junta, and other holdings include weapons, uniforms, maps, portraits, coins and objects of daily life. The house is a colonial structure with courtyards, wooden balconies and thick walls, and the rooms were adapted with modern lighting and display systems while keeping the historic fabric. Audiovisual displays and reproductions supplement the originals, and temporary exhibitions explore themes such as the role of women, indigenous and Afro-Colombian participants, and the memory of independence. Programmes for schools and families run through the year, and guided visits are available. The museum is small enough to see in about an hour and a half, and its position beside the cathedral, the Capitolio and the Museo Botero makes it easy to fit into a walk through La Candelaria. Most interpretation is in Spanish, with limited English resources.