Established | 2002 |
---|---|
Location | Belize City, Belize |
Type | History museum |
The Museum of Belize is an art and history museum in Belize City, Belize.
Built between 1854 and 1857 [1] as a Her Majesty’s Prison while the area was still a British colony, it was a replacement for a wooden prison nearby. It was the Belize City Prison until 1993, when prisoners were then transferred to the Hattieville Prison [2]
In 2002, it was restored and renovated into a national museum.
It features exhibits on slavery in Belize including a timeline, information about slave revolts and communities of escaped slaves ( maroons), Maya artifacts and explores some 3,000 years of Maya history, the prison's history, colonial life, natural history, visual arts, and cultural exhibits of the many ethnic groups of the nation. [3]