Museo Historico Rafael Urdaneta

The museum was erected on the site known as “El Zamuro” hill where General Rafael Urdaneta's birth house was located, which was collapsed on the occasion of the centennial celebration of the hero's birth in the year 1888 during the Government of Alejandro Andrade, to be built the Urdaneta School dedicated to primary education. Later, in 1930, the Zulia government demolished that school building and erected a small building for an anti-tuberculosis dispensary, the work of the Belgian engineer León Hoet, who remained in those functions until the regional government chaired by Don Luis Roncayolo partially modified the premises, and decreed on October 21, 1936, the General Rafael Urdaneta Historical Museum, which houses the pieces that made up the old Zulia Museum, receiving in addition to that legacy an important donation from the relatives of Gral. Urdaneta, made up of objects that were In contact with the maximum Hero of Zulia, likewise institutions and the community in general were making donations of numerous pieces of historical and artistic value.
In 1945, Dr. Héctor Cuenca had the façade of his building modified to commemorate the centenary of the death of General Urdaneta, thus giving a neoclassical style and an exterior appearance similar to the Magdalena church, where they veiled the remains of General Urdaneta.
For the year 1987; to commemorate the bicentennial of the birth of General Urdaneta, the museum underwent some work related to: restoration, air conditioning and remodeling. For the year 1992, the Governor of the Zulia State, Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, inaugurated the first stage of the project to expand the Museum headquarters building, prepared by the architect Philippo Fortuney, consisting of a module of about 374.15 square meters of construction , distributed over two floors, the project is characterized by being very simple in its conception, which logically does not contrast or compete with the existing building. Then in 1997, the Governor of the Zulia State, Francisco Arias Cárdenas, by Decree No. 196, declares the Urdaneta Museum, Historical Cultural Monument of the Zulia State.