Historical Museum de Colchagua in Santa Cruz was opened in 1995 by the Chilean businessman Carlos Kardoenom. The mansion, which houses the museum, was badly damaged by an earthquake in February 2010. The museum remained closed for eight months for various repairs. About 60% of the museum's collection was damaged, and a collection of pre-Columbian art was completely destroyed. Again, taking the visitors the museum was only in October 2010.

Its collection numbers about 7,000 exhibits that relate to paleontology, archeology and history of Chile and the world. The museum is now open 23 rooms. To visit all the rooms with a guide, it will need almost 4 hours. Each room is dedicated to a single topic. Exposition of paleontology contains fossils of various species of fauna and flora. The exhibition "Prehistoric Chile" is devoted to the history of pre-Hispanic culture of the indigenous inhabitants of the continent.

The collection contains documents and personal items that belonged to Pedro de Valdivia (Chile recognized founder, who lived in the XVI century), and a collection of weapons, household items, coins and antique furniture of those times, as well as a collection of sacred objects XVII and XVIII centuries.

The stands can be accessed with the unique exhibits, such as the Constitutive Act of the Government Junta of Chile from 1810, the piano that belonged to Bernardo O'Higgins (known to the military policy of the beginning of XIX century), the insignia of President José Miguel Carrera (one of the founding fathers of Chile's end XVIII - early XIX century).

On display are models of cars from different eras, the weapons used by mankind since ancient times to World War II. There is a "Hall of great salvation," which tells the story of the tragedy 33 miners - for this exhibition the museum has been marked by the British newspaper "The Independent" as the best museum that affects social problems of society.

Historical Museum de Colchagua is located in downtown Santa Cruz and is open every day throughout the year, except holidays.