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The Costa Brava is much more than sun and beach, bars and restaurants. In the Costa Brava, we can also find very unique museums suitable for everyone. Today, we have prepared a list with some of the most curious museums with cultural, gastronomic, maritime or ludic themes. Because culture always adds up, and in the Costa Brava we have museums for all tastes!
1. Salvador Dalí House-Museum (Portlligat)
The Salvador Dalí house was built on top of the old fishermen's huts of Portlligat, where the painter lived and worked regularly from 1930 until the death of Gala in 1982. Inside, it has a labyrinthine structure where it's easy to get lost, and the décor is made up of unconnected objects collected by Dalí himself throughout his life. In 1997, it was opened to the public as a must-visit spot to truly understand the painter's universe. Among its rooms, you can contemplate his workspace, the library, the living rooms where his private life unfolded, and the garden and pool area. You need to buy tickets in advance through their website. The Salvador Dalí House-Museum is one of the key elements of the Dalinian Triangle.
2. Toy Museum (Figueres)
The Museu del Joguet (Toy Museum) of Figueres, is one of the most curious museums in the area and one of the most recommended museums in Catalonia to visit with children. The toys are grouped by themes and are accompanied by photographs from different eras with children playing with them, so visitors can be transported back in time and some even to their own childhood. You will find industrial games and toys from the late 19th century to the most recent ones. Standouts include the tin toys, the analog railway model, the Catalan cardboard dolls (pepes), those made with porcelain elements, the theaters printed by Paluzie and Seix Barral in Barcelona, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the mechanical toys of German origin, magic lanterns... A visit that will transport you back in time.
3. Fishing Museum (Palamós)
In Palamós, the fishing world doesn't end at the dock, but continues at the Museu de la Pesca (Fishing Museum), unique in the Mediterranean in its specialty. This center presents the past, present, and future of fishing, through its permanent exhibition and a set of activities related to the maritime and fishing fact of the Costa Brava. A reflection of man's work at sea, which becomes a spectacle in this fishing village. Take advantage of your visit to discover some of Palamós's best beaches and coves, and to enjoy its local gastronomy and some of its star products like the Palamós prawn.
4. Jam Museum (Torrent)
The Museum of Jam is a gastronomic museum opened in 2004 in Torrent. By visiting it, you can discover all the secrets to making good jam, with the most diverse and original flavors you can imagine: from exotic fruits, sweet and bitter, classic or more unknown combinations. Apart from visiting their workshop and their store, you can also participate in some of the courses and workshops they organize for both adults and children, as well as taste the pairings that come out of it.
5. Mediterrània Museum (Torroella de Montgrí)
The Museum de la Mediterrània in Torroella de Montgrí, at the foot of the Montgrí Castle, is a dynamic and interactive museum, entirely focused on the Mediterranean. It is located in Can Quintana, a 15th-16th century house. It does not exclusively contain a permanent exhibition, but spaces dedicated to pictorial and contemporary art. It also hosts temporary exhibitions related to the theme of the museum, where its main thread is sound and music, aiming to show the Mediterranean Sea with the "five senses".
6. Anchovy and Salt Museum (L'Escala)
L'Escala has preserved, over the centuries, an industry that has made it famous all over the world: the salting of anchovies. The Museu de l'Anxova i de la Sal (Anchovy and Salt Museum) showcases the history of fishing and blue fish salting, from the 16th century to the present, immersing us in a time, heritage, and unique knowledge on the Catalan coast. The museum also organizes the Festa de la Sal (Salt Festival) since 1997. Every third Saturday in September, on the natural stage of the beach of the old port, the town of L'Escala pays tribute to its ancestral fishers and salters with a display of maritime trades, traditional songs, and dances.
7. Museu del Suro (Palafrugell)
The Museu del Suro (Cork Museum) n Palagrugell is located in the former Can Mario factory building, around a small cork oak grove where you can see the various exhibition spaces. The building itself is already a small museum of modernist architecture. The exhibition features a video, a journey from the forest to the factory work to obtain corks, discs, paper and agglomerate, a space for experimentation and a participatory space. Today, this museum is the largest in the world specifically dedicated to this subject, so it's worth a visit! Take advantage of the day by visiting Calella de Palafrugell, a true Mediterranean paradise.
8. Terracotta Museu (La Bisbal d'Empordà)
The museum is located in the old Terracotta ceramic tile factory, the oldest of La Bisbal d'Empordà, founded in 1928. During the visit you can discover the bricklayer and potter trades as well as the products related to ceramics and its history in La Bisbal d'Empordà, from the low Middle Ages to the present. Then you can take a walk around the village, where you will see that its most emblematic activity is ceramics, and to acquire some typical object.
9. Ecomuseu-Farinera (Castelló d'Empúries)
This museum in the town of Castelló d'Empúries shows how men and women who are dedicated to wheat grain cultivation in this area of the Empordà live. The Ecomuseum-Farinera exposes the process of grinding the different wheat types in order to obtain the flour. Various fine machines, dated from the end of the XIXth century and the first half of the XXth century, are held in the factory, which serve to the production process. Most of the interior structures of the flour mill are made of wood, giving it an ancient, but modern air at the same time.
10. Archaeology Museum (Sant Martí d'Empúries)
The Archaeological Museum of Catalonia (MAC) aims to conserve, research and disseminate archaeological remains in Catalonia, which illustrate the different historical periods between prehistoric and medieval times. This site, known as the ruins of Empúries, was an ancient Greek colony founded by the Phocaeans and later Roman, located at the southern end of the Gulf of Roses, northeast of the current municipality of L'Escala, south of Sant Martí d'Empúries, which retains the name. From the museum itself, they organize very interesting guided tours that will transport you back centuries. Whether you visit the Costa Brava in winter or summer, with these museums we suggest, both adults and children, you can add a cultural touch to your visit!
If you like museums or if you are looking for a refuge to protect yourself from the heat during the hottest hours of the summer, here you will find the top museums of Catalonia.
