Although Spain has museums with huge collections of art, science and history, you can also find unusual museums that will leave us in awe.
Spain is an ideal destination for culture lovers. Madrid’s “golden triangle”, with the Prado, Reina Sofía and Thyssen, the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and the emblematic Guggenheim in Bilbao are some of the mandatory stops for many national and foreign tourists.
But lovers of science and knowledge cannot complain about the offer either. Giant squid? Witches, instruments of torture? Everything is on the menu.
Giant Squid Museum, Luarca
This science museum is located in the city of Luarca, in Asturias. The original museum, opened in 2010, was managed by the marine conservation group CEPESMA and, as its name suggests, was dedicated to the conservation of a wide collection of cephalopods, especially the giant squid. Doge Architeuthiswhich has the largest number of copies exposed to the public in the world.
The museum was severely damaged by a storm in November of the same year it opened and was largely destroyed by another storm in 2014. After several years of waiting, it reopened this summer.
Witches Museum, Zugarramurdi, Navarre
Photograph: carla vidal
We know the places in the world where the trials in which these innocent women were convicted were supposed to have taken place. The small Navarrese town of Zugarramurdi was the scene in 1610 of a trial by the Catholic Inquisition, which resulted in more than 7,000 people being prosecuted and 53 convicted of witchcraft, most of them women.
Zugarramurdi today pays homage to its pagan heritage with places like the Witches Museum, created in 2007 with a series of exhibits that illustrate both the reality and myth surrounding local witches. The museum also participates in the annual summer solstice celebration in nearby caves.
Microminiature Museum, Guadalest, Alicante
This small town in Alicante has some of the most unusual museums in the world, including the salt and pepper shaker museum, and this miniature museum dedicated to small works of art. Features a reproduction of the Statue of Liberty that fits in the eye of a needle, and with Goya’s famous painting The Executions of May 2 painted on a grain of rice. Visitors need to look through microscopes to admire these little wonders.
Torture Museum, Santillana del Mar, Asturias
Santillana del Mar is a beautiful city that has preserved its streets and traditional houses. In the midst of so much charm, there is a museum unsuitable for sensitive people, dedicated to the instruments of torture and execution used by the Spanish Inquisition during the Middle Ages and beyond.
It contains over 70 objects used to torture accused Jews, Muslims, Protestants and witches, including guillotines, clubs, iron ladies and even even chastity belts.
Science of Quo Travel Section sponsored by hyundai