Museo Taminango de Artes y Tradiciones Populares de Nariño

The Museo Taminango de Artes y Tradiciones Populares de Nariño, also known as Casona Taminango, is located in Pasto, Colombia. Housed in a 17th-century colonial building declared a national monument in 1971, it exhibits approximately 860 pieces representing traditional crafts such as Pasto varnish, wood carving, and textile arts. The museum also features a collection of works by Dr. Leopoldo López Álvarez, including his Greek-type printing press and bilingual translations of classical texts.

Planning your visit

Casona Taminango is a seventeenth-century adobe house in Pasto, declared a national monument in 1971 and among the oldest surviving colonial buildings in southern Colombia — reason enough to visit before considering the collection.

The roughly 860 pieces document the crafts of Nariño, and the outstanding one is barniz de Pasto: a resin harvested from a tree in the Putumayo, chewed and stretched into translucent sheets, dyed and applied to carved wood in patterns of great intricacy. The technique is pre-Hispanic, survives only here, and UNESCO recognises it as intangible heritage.

Wood carving, weaving and other regional trades are shown alongside, with demonstrations.

The collection of Leopoldo López Álvarez includes his Greek printing press and his translations of classical texts — an unexpected strand.

Pasto sits high in the Andes near the Ecuadorean border. Allow an hour. Bookable options include city tours. Current availability is shown below.