Museums and Galleries
1. Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville
Housed in an exquisite former convent, this art museum is second only to Madrid’s famed Prado. Paintings include early works by Velázquez, important works by Zurbarán, Ribera, El Greco, Murillo, Valdés Leal and Vásquez (for further details see Museo de Bellas Artes).
2. Archivo de Indias, La Lonja, Seville
This museum is a vast archive given over to the discovery and conquest of the New World; four centuries of Spanish empire are painstakingly catalogued. The museum is housed in an 18th-century edifice that was built as the merchants’ exchange. The building and the archive are registered as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Avda de la Constitución 3 • Open 8am–3pm Mon–Fri (to 2:30pm summer) • 954 50 05 28 • Free
3. Museo Arqueologica Antiquarium, Seville
This subterranean museum, situated below the extraordinary Metropol Parasol structure in Plaza de la Encarnación, showcases the fascinating archaeological remains found in 1973 when the Parasol complex was being built. Extensive Roman ruins date from the Tiberius era onwards (around 30–600 AD) and there is a Moorish house dating back to the 12th–13th century.Plaza de la Encarnación • Open 10am–8pm Tue–Sat, 10am–2pm Sun and public hols • 955 47 15 81 • Adm
4. Museo de Cadiz
A Neo-Classical mansion houses Cádiz’s main museum, a rich juxtaposition of archaeological treasures and fine art. In Europe’s oldest city there are naturally artifacts from ancient cultures, including jewellery, pottery and small bronzes, but most notably a pair of 5th-century BC marble sarcophagi. Among the art are works by Zurbarán, Rubens, Murillo and Cano. An ethnological collection features artisanal pieces that highlight aspects of the city’s culture (for further details see Museo de las Cortes de Cádiz).
5. Museo del Bandolero, Ronda
This offbeat museum celebrates the story and legend of the Serranía’s famous bandits and highwaymen. They were mostly active in the 19th century and managed to capture the imagination of many writers of the period, who portrayed them as romantic figures living a devil-may-care life in communion with nature. As the exhibits here will attest, they were anything but “diamonds in the rough” (for further details see Museo del Bandolero).
6. Museo Arqueologico, Cordoba
A small 16th-century Renaissance mansion is home to this excellent collection, essential for understanding the city’s importance in Roman times. In fact, the mansion was built over a Roman structure and there is an ancient patio to prove it. A sculpture of the Persian god Mithras, from a mithraeum found at Cabra, is particularly fine. Other parts of the collection focus on Iberian finds and Moorish artifacts (for further details see Museo Arqueológico).
7. Museo Municipal, Antequera
This museum is located in a striking 18th-century ducal palace, which means that many of the exhibits simply cannot compete with the context. Two that do, however, are the life-size 1st-century AD Roman bronze representing a naked young man, possibly Ganymede, cupbearer to the gods, and a life-like carving of St Francis of Assisi, executed in wood by Pedro de Mena, a 17th-century Andalucían master (for further details see Antequera).
8. Museo Picasso, Malaga
Opened, after years of planning and several setbacks, this is the world’s third largest museum dedicated to the modern master. It was endowed by his daughter-in-law, Christine Ruiz-Picasso, and her son Bernard with some 187 paintings, including some major canvases, that give an idea of the breadth and depth of his career (for further details see Málaga).
9. Museo Parque de las Ciencias, Granada
This dazzling science park is home to a range of interactive exhibitions on such topics as the human body, outer space the environment and technology (for further details see Museo Parque de las Ciencias).
10. Museo Provincial y de Bellas Artes, Jaen
The archaeological lower floor has an interesting assortment of finds, but the 5th-century BC Iberian stone sculptures are truly extraordinary. Found near the town of Porcuna, in the western part of the province, they show clear influences from Greek works. Upstairs, the fine arts museum has some fine medieval wood sculpture and a Picasso drawing (for further details see Jaén City).
