San Salvador Travel Guide

The Salvadoran Museum of Art (Museo de Arte de El Salvador, MARTE) stands at the end of Avenida de la Revolución in Colonia San Benito, San Salvador, inside the Monument to the Revolution complex beside the Teatro Presidente — the country's most important art museum and Central America's best introduction to Salvadoran visual culture. The association behind it was founded in 2000 and the museum opened on 22 May 2003 in a building designed by architect Salvador Choussy in 1947 and rebuilt in 2007, now covering 2,968 m² with 1,208 m² of exhibition space and drawing over half a million visitors a year. In the courtyard stands Francisco Zúñiga's 1956 Monument to the Constitution of 1950, nine figures carved from a single stone for the sectors of society. The collection traces Salvadoran art from the mid-19th century to today across painting, sculpture, prints, photography, installation and video, anchored by the semi-permanent "Trópico Telúrico" display (running through June 2028) and rotating contemporary shows; its 20th anniversary in 2023 was marked by a 54-artist survey spanning 1800 to 2023. A library serves researchers, and guided visits run on Saturdays and Sundays during opening hours. The neighbouring David J. Guzmán National Museum of Anthropology (MUNA) makes an easy pairing.