Museo Regional de Historia de Colima

The Museo Regional de Historia de Colima occupies a restored 19th-century building on Portal Morelos facing the Jardín Libertad in the heart of Colima City's Centro Histórico. Administered by INAH, the museum's permanent collection centers on the archaeology of the Colima shaft-tomb tradition, spanning roughly 300 BCE to 600 CE, and is best known for its extensive holdings of the reddish-clay ceramic dog figurines associated with the Colima culture, along with human and animal effigy vessels, funerary offerings, and obsidian tools recovered from shaft tombs across the state. Upper galleries extend the narrative into the colonial and post-independence periods, covering Spanish settlement, the region's agricultural economy, and 19th- and 20th-century Colima history through photographs, documents, and period objects. The museum's building retains its original colonial-era arcade facade on the plaza while the interior galleries have been adapted with modern climate-controlled display cases to protect the ceramic collection. Curatorial organization follows a chronological path, moving from pre-Hispanic archaeology on the ground floor to colonial and modern history upstairs, giving visitors a linear narrative of the region's history. Periodic rotating exhibits supplement the permanent collection, and the museum has undergone display modernization in recent years while preserving the historic character of its arcaded exterior facing the plaza.