Local Museum of Compostela

Permanent exhibits: Tour: The permanent exhibition provides an approach to the pre-Hispanic cultures of western Nayarit and to the historical aspects related to the conquest of the region, as well as the history of the current state and particularly Compostela. The collection mainly consists of archaeological objects: red clay vases and figurines decorated with paint, clay pots, sculptures and stone utensils, obsidian, bone and jade points and pendants. It also has a historical collection of weapons from the 19th and 20th centuries, such as a colonial cannon that belonged to the fort of San Blas, in Nayarit. The rest of the collection includes banknotes, photographs and illustrations that represent historical events of Nayarit and of the locality. Notable are the photographs of Compostela's municipal presidents. The museum is composed of the following rooms: Tradición tumbas de tiro; La tradición aztatlán; Compostela contemporánea. Tradición tumbas de tiro: For a thousand years the farming peoples of western Mexico stood out for their funerary cults. Known as the builders of burial mounds, their traces have been found in the present-day states of Nayarit, Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán and Zacatecas. For a long time they maintained exchanges with other cultures; today it is known that they were navigators of the Pacific coasts and that such exchange occurred by sea, allowing them to reach present-day Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. In Compostela there are many testimonies of that culture, from Zacualpan and Tequilita to San Pedro Lagunillas and Las Cebollas. La tradición aztatlán: In archaeological terms, the last pre-Hispanic occupation in the area has been defined as la tradición aztatlán, which signified the apex of cultural development at the end of the Classic period and the beginning of the Postclassic. The tradition aztatlán has been defined as the most mesoamerican of western Mexico, as it shared Toltec cultural traits and received influences from central Mexico. Its origin is uncertain, but it is believed to be the result of a long process that culminated in the cultural and plastic manifestations of that tradition. Compostela contemporánea: In 1917, upon signing the Querétaro Constitution, the Liberty and Sovereign State of Nayarit was created, on the initiative of Venustiano Carranza and the then-departments that, like Compostela, had for decades requested the conversion of Tepic's territory into a geopol political order of state and municipalities. In the first half of the 20th century Nayarit lived a time of reorganization, while Compostela produced the greatest amount of tobacco, corn, coconut oil, and soap in the country. Over time the large haciendas disappeared to give way to ejidos such as Mazatán, Zacualpan and Valle de Banderas. This was a time of uncertainty. Nayarit saw one governor after another and Compostela faced cristero groups and landowners that harassed priests and rural teachers who joined the task of visiting the territory to carry out land distribution.