Spanish House Museums

ANDALUSIA




• Casa Museo Pedro Muñoz Seca
  The foundation is based in what was once the author’s family home, a 19th-century townhouse located in the old part of El Puerto de Santa María. It has been converted into a major cultural centre that houses the author’s legacy, a documentation centre and the permanent exhibition entitled Pedro Muñoz Seca: el humor dentro y fuera del teatro (Pedro Muñoz Seca: humour in and outside the theatre), which provides information on the brilliant comedy writer, shows his extensive oeuvre and important legacy and acknowledges his contribution to contemporary Spanish theatre. All this is peppered with examples of the humour that Muñoz Seca exuded both in his literary production and in his life.
  
  
• Museo Fundación Rafael Alberti
  The Rafael Alberti foundation is based in El Puerto de Santa María in a typical Andalusian white, light-filled three-storey house in which the poet lived as a child. It houses not only the childhood memories of the universal poet but also the gift he and his first wife, María Teresa León, made to his home town in 1978, as well as new contributions that are progressively incorporated and complete Rafael Alberti’s intense biography and oeuvre.
  Casa Museo de Salvador Morera
  The house is an example of 17th-century Cordoba folk architecture. Its galleries are laid out around a central courtyard. Particularly noteworthy are the ceramic murals covering the walls and floors of its interior. The decoration is completed with magnificent stained glass windows and doors.
  
  
• Museo Casa Natal y Museo de D. Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Torres
  The museum is located in the house where the president of the Second Spanish Republic, Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Torres, was born. This delightful 19th-century stately home was refurbished at the beginning of the century.
  
  
• Casa Museo Alfonso Ariza
  When he died in 1989, the artist Alfonso Ariza bequeathed his property to La Rambla council, his last wish being to have his home converted into a house-museum. The house is divided into six perfectly defined areas, including the spacious courtyard where the larger wrought iron works are displayed and five exhibition rooms that show the many disciplines embraced by this multi-faceted artist from La Rambla.
  
  
• Museo Julio Romero de Torres
  This museum pays tribute to one of the most popular Cordoba painters. It is located in a part of what was once a hospital founded by the Catholic Monarchs and was used as a residence by his father the painter Rafael Romero Barros when he arrived in Cordoba in 1862 to take up his post of director of the museum of fine arts. It was therefore in this house where the painter spent his childhood and youth. Julio Romero de Torres died in 1930 and after the city’s inhabitants paid their last respects to him, his widow and children donated a number of canvases and personal objects from his Madrid studio to the council to open this museum, which was inaugurated on 23 November 1931 by the then president of the Second Spanish Republic, Niceto Alcalá Zamora.
  
  
• Casa del Inca
  The Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (Gómez Suarez de Figueroa) was born in Cuzco in 1539 to a Spanish captain and an Inca princess. When he father died he came to Spain and in 1561 he took up residence in his uncle’s house in Montilla, embarking on his literary career. This house was given to the village of Montilla by its owner in 1957 and, following restoration, was converted into a house-museum in 1991 and a venue for various cultural activities.
  
  
• Casa Museo de San Juan de Ávila
  St John of Avila (Almodovar del Campo 1500 - Montilla 1569) studied theology at Salamanca and Alcalá, and was notable for his devoutness and dedication throughout his lifetime. He exercised his ministry particularly in the province of Cordoba, though also in other places such as Granada, where his preachings converted Juan Ciudad, who later became known as St John of God. This museum pays tribute to the memory of the saint in the house he inhabited from 1554. The house preserves its original form and is decorated with elements from the period.
  Casa Museo "Posada del Moro"
  A private museum located in a former dwelling with a 16th-century stone façade. The house, which had previously been a posthouse, barracks and inn, was restored by its owner, who converted it into a museum in 1970. Its collection is comprised of miscellaneous items including antique furniture, a broad variety of archaeological pieces, paintings and very different objects.
  
  
• Museo Adolfo Lozano Sidro
  Devoted to the artist who was born in Priego in 1872 and was a famed illustrator of the magazine Blanco y Negro and painter of landscapes, portraits, genre paintings and scenes of high society. It is located on the first and second floors of the house where the painter was born. He died in this same house in 1935. The museum features a broad representation of his oeuvre.
  
  
• Museo del pintor Francisco Poyato
  Museo located in the house of this artist, displaying paintings and sculptures by him.
  
  
• Museo Adolfo Lozano Sidro
  Belongs to the type of Andalusian stately home with a large arcaded courtyard and modernist decoration. It houses the Museo Histórico Municipal (municipal history museum) and Museo del Paisaje (landscape museum).
  
  
• Casa Museo Manuel de Falla
  The Manuel de Falla house-museum was inhabited by the composer for 18 years and is preserved as it was, showing how he drew inspiration from it for composing his works.
  Casa Museo Max Moreau
  Municipal museum located in the Albayzín district. It was the residence of the Belgian artist Max Leon Moreau, who bequeathed his entire estate to the city of Granada. Part of this artist’s oeuvre is on display in a gallery: portraits, still life paintings and landscapes. The artist’s studio, which has been preserved as he left it, can be visited in the main building. Display panels in the adjoining room provide a biographical tour of Moreau’s life.
  
  
• Huerta de San Vicente – Casa Museo de Federico García Lorca
  The Huerta de San Vicente property, formerly called Huerta “de los Mudos”, was a gift from Federico García to his family in 1925, as is reflected in the change of name—his wife was called Vicenta. Between 1926 and 1936 Huerta de San Vicente became the peaceful summer residence of the García Lorca family.
  
  
• Museo Casa Natal Federico García Lorca
  It was not until fifty years after the execution of Federico García Lorca that the house where Lorca was born in the village of Fuente Vaqueros was opened to the public on 4 June 1986. Since then, this family dwelling has become a must for anyone interested not only in the unique creator’s background, but also in his manuscripts, the correspondence with many of his friends and drawings by him and his contemporaries.
  
  
• Casa Museo de Federico García Lorca
  Federico Garcia Lorca was born in Fuente Vaqueros in 1898, and in 1904 he and his family moved to Asquerosa (now Valderrubio), where he began to write works such as "The House of Bernarda Alba", which is inspired by a family from Valderrubio.
  
  
• Archivo-Museo San Juan de Dios “Casa de los Pisa”
  The house-museum of the Pisa family (where St John of God died in 1550) is devoted to the study and dissemination of the work of the saint. Over 3,000 items are on display there, including his personal objects.
  Casa Museo Ángel Barrios
  House of the Granada-born composer and guitarist displaying related memorabilia.
  
  
• Casa-Museo Zenobia y Juan Ramón Jiménez de Moguer
  The "Zenobia y Juan Ramón" house-museum is located in Moguer, an Andalusian village in the province of Huelva a 54-minute drive along the motorway from Seville. The building dates from the 18th century and was restored by the Jiménez family in 1885. The house-museum was established the year that the poet was awarded the Nobel Prize, by means of a unanimous agreement between Moguer council and the provincial authorities (who owned the building) after consent was given by Jiménez and his wife, who contributed to its creation by generously donating the entire contents of their library and the furniture and other household items from their apartment in Calle Padilla no. 38, in Madrid, which were deposited in the Museo Romántico when Jiménez and his wife went into exile. It was opened to the public days after the poet died. Its conservation is now the responsibility of the Fundación Juan Ramón Jiménez.
  
  
• Casa Museo Andrés Segovia – Fundación Centro de Documentación Musical
  The foundation is based in the stately home of the Orozco family, which was built in the 17th century and designated a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1962.
  
  
• Fundación Picasso-Museo Casa Natal
  The Pablo Ruiz Picasso foundation and birth house-museum was established on 26 February 1988 through a decision of the plenary of Malaga council, to which the institution is attached. A member of the Spanish Museo System since 1991, it is based in the building where Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born on 25 October 1881. The temporary exhibition hall on the ground floor of the foundation displays interesting exhibitions related to Picasso and his general and cultural environment, while the first-floor museum contains works by the artist and his father, José Ruiz Blasco, and private memorabilia of Picasso and his family. The Documentation Centre and Library on the third floor provide a variety of resources for exploring the artist and his work.
  
  
• Casa de Blas Infante
  The birth house of Blas Infante, the politician from Casares who fought for self-governing status for Andalusia and was shot in the Spanish Civil War, was opened to the public as a museum in 1998. The building has two storeys and a significant archive, in addition to its exhibition room.
  
  
• Museo Lara
  A private museum established by Juan Lara in a stately building in Ronda. It features a hall of clocks, antiques, archaeological pieces, among others.
  
  
• Casa de Pilatos
  The construction of this building was initiated by Pedro Enríquez, Adelantado Mayor (civil and military governor) of Andalusia, and by his wife Catalina de Ribera, though most of the building was erected by their son Fadrique, first Marquis of Tarifa, upon returning from a trip to Jerusalem. Don Fadrique’s trip to Jerusalem gave rise to the legend that the Seville mansion was a copy of the praetorium of Pontius Pilate. However, another tradition has it that it is so called because the first station of the Via Crucis to the Cruz del Campo had been outside this house. As it was at this station where it was reminded that Christ was condemned at the house of Pontius Pilate, the people of Seville began to call the building “The House of Pilate”. The upper floor houses a large collection of paintings dating between the 16th and 19th centuries, distributed in several rooms.
  
  
• Casa Museo Bonsor. Castillo de Mairea
  Early medieval fortification converted by J. Bonsor, housing his collection and archive.
  
  
• Casa Museo Blas Infante
  Visitors are provided with guided tours of what was the last residence of the “father of Andalusia”, in accordance with the aim of making his legacy known. The museum also promotes the study and research of Andalusian reality in the field of the humanities. The interior of the building preserves the original symbols designed by Blas Infante that now identify the autonomous region of Andalusia: the coat of arms, flag and piano on which the Andalusian anthem was played for the first time.
  
  
• Casa de la Condesa de Lebrija
  The stately home of the Lebrija family is one of the finest buildings in Seville. Not only does it boast mosaics; its rooms also house a host of archaeological remains of incalculable value: vases, amphorae, columns, vessels and sculptures. Its wall are furthermore adorned with decorative elements such as Arab arches and Plateresque ornamentation, while the façade and ground plan are Andalusian style.
  
  
  
  
  ARAGÓN
  
  
  
  
• Casa Natal de Goya y Museo del Grabado
  Goya’s birth house was identified by Ignacio Zuloaga and a group of Zaragoza artists in 1913. It was designated a National Historic-Artistic Monument in 1982 and underwent restoration. Its three floors are decorated with Aragonese-style furniture and objects, reproductions of a few works and documentation from the painter’s early period.
  
  
  
  ASTURIAS
  
  
  
  
• Fundación Selgas Fagalde
  The Palacio de La Quinta is located in the village of El Pito in the coastal municipality of Cudillero. The La Quinta estate, in addition to its beautiful extensive historic gardens, majestic buildings and large art collection, is the legacy that the Selgas-Fagalde family bequeathed to the people of Asturias.
  
  
• Museo Casa Natal de Jovellanos
  The house where Don Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos was born in 1744. His private apartments were always located in the torre nueva (new tower) from 1790 to 1797. It contains two rooms that provide information on the life and works of Jovellanos, and displays a broad variety of 19th- and 20th-century Asturian art.
  
  
• Centro de Interpretación A. Palacio Valdés
  The Centro de Interpretación Armando Palacio Valdés, the writer’s birth home, offers visitors a view of the landscape through the writer’s literature, particularly the most outstanding work on his home village: “La Aldea Perdida”. The centre, which now includes a library that is well stocked with the writer’s novels, also has five permanent exhibition rooms: one devoted exclusively to the writer, with original manuscripts, photos of the author and his family and furniture belonging to his descendants, among other items.
  
  
  
  BALEARIC ISLANDS
  
  
  
  
• Casa Museu J. Torrents Lladó
  Directed by the artist’s daughter, Maria Torrents, the house-museum provides visitors with a glimpse of the environment in which the artist lived and produced his oeuvre. The house was opened with 125 of the artist’s works, in addition to sketches, watercolours and other materials owned by him.
  
  
• Fundació Casa Museu Llorenç Villalonga
  The Casa Museu Llorenç Villalonga, located in Binissalem, is a typical Majorcan building known as Can Sabater, where the writer spent the summer months and lived during the Civil War. Its main purpose is to promote knowledge of the personality and oeuvre of one of the most important 20th-century Majorcan writers, an acknowledged intellectual and author of many literary and journalistic works. The house-museum also aims to promote and provide a venue for activities relating to contemporary Majorcan literature and, by extension, universal literature.
  
  
• Museu Arxiduc Lluís Salvador D’Austria de Son Marroig
  The museum was established in 1929 by Antoni Ribas Prats. It contains memorabilia of the stay of Archduke Louis Salvator, and paintings by Joan Bauçà, Joaquim Mir and Ribas himself. The collection is completed with an exhibition of Phoenician, Greek and Roman pottery and Hispano-Arab plates.
  
  
• Museu de la Beata Sor Fracinaina Cirer
  The building is an example of 16th- or 17th-century folk architecture. The original rooms of the house of Sor Francinaina preserve the courtyard, kitchen, dining room and bedroom, in addition to personal objects of the blessed sister, furniture and other items. Now a museum, it provides an insight into Majorcan life during that period.
  
  
• Museu Dionís Bennàssar
  The purpose of the Dionís Bennàssar foundation is to gather, conserve and disseminate the work of the painter Dionís Bennàssar (1904-1967). It is located in a 17th-century building and recreates daily life in a typical Majorcan house, preserving many of the memorabilia amassed by the painter throughout his lifetime.
  
  
• Casa Natal de Fray Juníper Serra
  The house where Juníper Serra was born (1713) is located in an area called Barracar Alt, the highest part of the village. The building is traditional and preserves the basic features of a 17th- and 18th-century farmhouse. It displays furniture and tools belonging to the blessed brother and the vat for wine making.
  
  
• Palacio Real de La Almudaina
  La Almudaina is the Castell Reial (royal castle) or Alcázar Real (royal fortress-palace) of the city of Majorca. It is now used by His Majesty the King as an official residence for state ceremonies and receptions during the summer.
  
  
  
  CANARY ISLANDS
  
  
  
  
• Museo de la Fundación César Manrique
  The Fundación César Manrique is located in the house-cum-studio where the artist lived in Taro de Tahíche (Lanzarote). It may be considered the work that best embodies Manrique’s personal and artistic ideals.
  
  The museum devoted to Don Miguel de Unamuno is located in the capital of Fuerteventura, Puerto del Rosario, in the building used as an inn where Unamuno lived during the confinement ordered by General Primo de Rivera in February 1924.
  
  
• Casa Museo Pérez Galdós
  The Pérez Galdós museum is located in the house where the author was born, a 19th-century building that preserves the main characteristics of domestic architecture of the commercial area of Triana. Its rooms are arranged to recreate the ambience of Galdós’s family residences in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Madrid and Santander.
  
  
• Casa Museo Antonio Padrón
  The Antonio Padrón house-museum in Gáldar is located in the painter’s former studio and belongs to a larger architectural complex that included the family dwelling, which is now separate from the museum premises.
  
  
• Casa Museo Tomás Morales
  Birth home of the poet Tomás Morales (1884-1921), who was educated in the Modernist movement. The theme of the museum extends to the historical and literary context in which he produced or planned part of his oeuvre. The museum’s holdings consist of objects or memorabilia closely linked to the author, and are based on the writer’s legacy.
  
  
• Casa Museo León y Castillo
  An institution established in 1954 by the council of Gran Canaria as a tribute to Fernando de León y Castillo, the 1st Marquis of Muni, a parliamentarian and diplomat, and to his borther Juan, engineer of highways, canals and harbours. Both men were faithful exponents of the political class of the Bourbon Restoration. The museum occupies the house where Fernando was born and other adjacent buildings. Its rooms display a rich legacy comprised of nearly a thousand pieces, including works by Mariano Benlliure, Antonio Mª Cortinelli, Eugenio Maifrén, Raimundo Madrazo, Antonio Caula, Cusachs, Domingo Marqués, Massieu y Falcón, Balasch, Gómez Bosch and Arencibia Gil, among others.
  Museo Palacio Spínola
  The house of the Spínola family is one of the most important surviving buildings in the town owing both to its features and to its size. It was built by Don José Feo Peraza between 1730 and 1780, though his son Don José Feo de Armas was the most important person to live in this mansion. The surname Spínola became associated with the mansion for the first time in its history in 1895, after being linked to the Feo family for over 150 years.
  
  
• Casa Museo Emeterio Gutiérrez Albelo
  The Emeterio Gutiérrez Albelo house-museum was founded in September 1992 after the author’s heirs made a gift of his personal library and archives. The house is situated in a central street in the old part of the town of Icod (Tenerife), where the writer was born and spent his entire youth. In addition to documentation that belonged to the author—books, magazines, letters—the building houses a broad variety of artwork such as drawings, caricatures, paintings and photographs and small items and objects that were part of the author’s daily life.
  
  
  
  CANTABRIA
  
  
  
  
• Casa del Águila y La Parra
  
  
• Palacio de Sobrellano
  The mansion of the Marquis of Comillas, also known as the Palacio de Sobrellano, was built by the Catalan architect Joan Martorell y Montells between 1881 and 1888 on the instructions of the 1st Marquis of Comillas, Antonio López, who erected it on the site of his humble childhood home. Noteworthy features of the interior, where part of the furniture was designed by the Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí, are the neo-Gothic chapel-pantheon by Martorell and the marble mausoleums sculpted by Limona and Vallmitjana.
  
  
• Casa Museo de José María de Cossio
  The Casona de Tudanca is located in the village of the same name in a mountain setting in the basin of the river Nansa in the western part of the Cantabria region. It was built in the mid-18th century on the orders of Pascual Fernández de Linares of Tudanca, who amassed great wealth in Peru. It is also the historical backdrop to the novel Peñas Arriba by José María de Pereda. The interior preserves the typical atmosphere of an aristocratic mountain home. However, its most notable feature is its library, which is made up of the working and reading materials of José María de Cossío.
  
  
• Casa Museo Library de Menéndez Pelayo
  The Menéndez Pelayo society was set up in 1918 on the initiative of Don Miguel Artigas, the first director of the Menéndez Pelayo library that had been established in 1912 in accordance with Marcelino Menendez Pelayo’s will, in which the library and the building housing it were bequeathed to the city of Santander. This is the family home of Menéndez Pelayo, a simple French-style detached house that is similar to others dating from that period and was built in 1876 and inaugurated as a house-museum on 25 August 1935.
  
  
  
  CASTILE LA MANCHA
  
  
  
  
• Casa y Museo de El Greco
  The El Greco house and museum was erected on the ruins of a 16th-century house and Renaissance mansion in Toledo’s Jewish quarter. It was built at the beginning of the century and it was the Marquis de la Vega-Inclán who restored these areas and their gardens between 1907 and 1910. The aim was to adapt it to house the collection of works by El Greco, which were at risk of disappearing as they were dispersed throughout the city of Toledo.
  
  
• Casa de Cervantes
  Museo Casa Dulcinea
  Oral tradition has it that this house belonged to Doña Ana Martínez Zarco de Morales, who has been identified as Dulcinea in Don Quixote. The museum is decorated in the style of an ordinary 16th-century dwelling in La Mancha, with furniture, rooms and common utensils from the period.
  Museo Victorio Macho
  Museo devoted to the Palencia artist Victorio Macho, who took up residence in the imperial city after serving exile in Peru. It houses 88 sculptures and 38 drawings executed in different periods of his life.
  
  
  
  CASTILE-LEÓN
  
  
  
  
• Museo de Santa Teresa
  The museum contains 30 areas with documents, drawings, books, paintings, carvings, engravings… and a host of objects related to the lesser arts. The rooms where St Theresa of Jesus was born were located in the chapels of El Carmen and of the Saint. Part of the original vegetable garden remains.
  
  
• Museo Teresiano Monasterio de la Encarnación
  This convent was built on the site of a former Jewish ossuary. St Theresa lived in it for 27 years. St Theresa chose to enter this convent, which was established in 1479 by Doña Beatriz de Higuera, as a novice in the order of Carmelite nuns in 1535. She remained there for 27 years before departing to carry out the Carmelite reform. St John of the Cross lived there from 1572 to 1577 as the nuns’ chaplain and confessor.
  
  
• Museo Casa Natal de Isabel La Católica
  The mansion of Don Juan II, now a monastery, preserves some rooms from the period: the royal staircase and court parliament room (both with Mudejar coffered ceilings), cloister, chapel royal, hall of ambassadors and the queen’s bedchamber.
  
  
• Casa Museo General San Martín
  Birth house of the captain Don Juan de San Martín Gómez, residence of the San Martín family and currently a museum. The furniture and crafts of an 18th-century Castilian village dwelling are displayed. The museum evokes and pays tribute to the Castilian roots of Captain José San Martín, liberator of the Argentine Republic.
  
  
• Casa Museo Unamuno
  Elected rector of the University of Salamanca in 1900 until his resignation in 1914, Unamuno occupied the residence the University provided for its rectors: a Baroque-style, two-storey building with a splendid formal drawing room and living and study area. The thinker’s close links to Salamanca and its university and the huge recognition he earned them led the rector’s residence to be converted into a house-museum in the 1950s. It was designed to perpetuate the memory of Miguel de Unamuno by safekeeping the family furniture and possessions, and the writer’s library and personal archives.
  
  
• Palacio Real de La Granja de San Ildefonso
  The Royal Seat of La Granja lies to the north of the Guadarrama mountains, some 90 kilometres away from Madrid. It is named after the former estate that stood on this site, belonging to the Hieronymite monks of the monastery of El Parral in Segovia. Philip V retired to this place in 1724 and during the following twenty years enlarged the gardens and palace, which was used as a summer residence by all his successors down to Alfonso XIII.
  
  
• Palacio Real de Riofrío
  
  
  
• Casa Museo Zorrilla
  The Zorrilla museum is located in the house where the romantic poet José Maximiano Zorrilla Moral was born on 21 February 1817 and spent his early childhood, as well as staying there for sporadic periods during other periods in his life. The house-museum has an area of some 400 sq m and a permanent exhibition area of approximately 300 sq m, distributed among twelve rooms which contain most of the museum’s holdings. They display books, personal objects and memorabilia of the poet, most of which were donated by his widow Juana Pacheco, the illustrious writer Narciso Alonso Cortés, Felisa Peña, Narcisa Beaumud and the Arimón family.
  
  
• Casa Museo Colón
  After Philip V died, Queen Isabella Farnese resided at La Granja during the reign of Ferdinand VI (1746-1759). During those years she acquired the so-called Coto de Riofrío and began to build a new Royal Seat. Isabella II’s wife Francisco de Asís spent long periods at Riofrío, as did Alfonso XII after the death of Queen María de las Mercedes. The decoration of the royal apartments that occupy half of the main floor dates from these reigns. The remainder of the main floor is occupied by a hunting museum, one of the most important of its kind.
  
  
• Casa Cervantes
  The museum is located in the building that was occupied by the writer when he lived in Valladolid between 1603 and 1606. The first edition of Don Quixote was published in 1605, when Cervantes was in Valladolid. Its interior is intended to recreate the atmosphere the writer would have breathed in a house that was discreetly decorated in keeping with the possibilities of a 17th-century Spanish gentleman.
  
  
• Museo de la Colegiata
  The church that houses the museum of religious art in Villagarcía was built on the orders of Magdalena de Ulloa following the death of her husband D. Luis de Quijada, lord of Villagarcía and right-hand man of Emperor Charles V. The church is linked to the Society of Jesus.
  
  
  
  CATALONIA
  
  
  
  
• Museo Frederic Marès
  The origins of the Frederic Marès museum date back to 1946, when what we may regard as the first room of the museum was opened on the first floor of a building in the Carrer dels Comtes in Barcelona. In the 1940s the council decided to install the museum there in order to integrate it into what became known thereafter as the Gothic quarter, the medieval core of the city located in the environs of the cathedral. In 1952 Frederic Marès went to live in an apartment built especially for him on the third floor of the building. The premises therefore became a house-museum. The works to extend and adapt it continued until 1970, when the museum acquired its current volume.
  
  
• Cau Ferrat
  Cau Ferrat is the house-cum-studio of Santiago Rusiñol (Barcelona 1861-Aranjuez 1931), one of the most prominent figures of the Catalan modernist movement. The sculptor used the ground floor of the building as a dwelling and the first floor housed the collection of wrought iron he had amassed in his youth.
  
  
• Teatro-Museo Dalí
  The Dalí theatre-museum, which opened in 1974, was built on the site of the former theatre of Figueres and contains a broad selection of works that trace the artistic career of Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) from his earliest experiments with art and surrealist creations to the works executed during the final years of his life.
  
  
• Casa Museu Verdaguer
  The house is a small mid-17th-century rural building located in the former main street of the village and was used for domestic and agricultural purposes. The ground floor contains a permanent exhibition explaining the author’s life and works, the first floor preserves the kitchen and a family room, and the second floor is used to hold temporary exhibitions as well as containing an auditorium and a small library.
  
  
• Museu Casa Verdaguer
  This museum is housed in Vil.la Joana, very near the Tibidabo mountain. It is a typical Catalan-style 19th-century country house where the poet Jacinto Verdaguer spent his last days. The museum consists of two areas, one sentimental with period furniture, and a literary area with an exhibition on Verdaguer’s life and literary career.
  
  
• Casa Museo Castillo Gala Dalí
  The medieval castle of Púbol—which was the residence of the painter’s wife during the 1970s and his own in the early 1980s—has been the Gala-Dalí house-museum since 1996.
  
  
• Casa Museo Salvador Dalí
  The Salvador Dalí house-museum in Portlligat was opened to the public in 1997 and is a must for anyone wishing to learn about the painter’s universe. The house consists of a set of fishermen’s huts bought in different stages, which Gala and Dalí progressively shaped into a labyrinthine structure and decorated over a period of more than 40 years, from 1930 to the 1970s. The painter’s studio, the library, the rooms where they conducted their private life and the garden area and swimming pool can be visited.
  Fundacio Emili Vila
  The museum, which is also the house where Emili Vila i Gorgoll was born and died, contains over 300 paintings which represent all the periods in his artistic career. It also displays works by Modigliani, Toulouse Lautrec, Corot, Rousseau, Castelucho, Degas, Goya and Picasso.
  
  
  
  EXTREMADURA
  
  
  
  
• Casa de Zurbarán
  In Calle Águilas stands a house where tradition has it that Francisco de Zurbarán was born back in 1598. It has been refurbished and furnished to recreate the period atmosphere and decorated with copies of paintings and other motifs found in the artist’s oeuvre.
  Museo Histórico-Artístico
  Emperor Charles V spent his last days at the monastery of San Jerónimo de Yuste, in a small palace that was built on his instructions beside the monastery.
  
  
  
  GALICIA
  
  
  
  
• Casa Museo Picasso
  The house-museum was inaugurated on 18 December 2002 in the 19th-century urban expansion area known as the Ensanche in La Coruña. The building (apartment, hall, staircase) has been refurbished on the basis of the original design and is now exactly as it was when the Ruiz Picasso lived there.
  
• Casa Museo María Pita
  The building recreates the atmosphere of the city in the 18th and 17th centuries and its participation in the international events of the period. Part of the ground floor is used for temporary exhibitions and contains a model of the city in that period, copies of the royal charters and a genealogy of Philip II. The first floor houses a reproduction of the shop belonging to María Pita’s parents and a reproduction of a room in her parents’ home. The second floor displays maps of the dominions of the great European countries. The information panels on the third floor recall the siege of 1589 and the role of women in the 16th century. The fourth floor gives an idea of the development of the city and the life of María Pita.
  
  
• Casa Museo “Valle Inclán”
  Website devoted to Don Ramón del Valle-Inclán and the places linked to his life and literature.
  
  
• Casa Museo da Fundación Camilo José Cela
  In the early 1980s Camilo José Cela decided to bequeath all his manuscripts, books, paintings, works of art, archive and literary references to a foundation that was established under his life chairmanship in Iria Flavio, the village where he was born. The premises are a set of late-18th-century houses built as a residence for the canons of the collegiate church of Santa María de Adina, opposite its portico.
  
  
• Casa Museo de Emilia Pardo Bazán
  This house-museum gives visitors a glimpse of the private universe of the author Emilia Pardo Bazán through rooms that recreate the past. A radical arrangement underlines her literary facet; a different work is analysed and illustrated each year.
  
  
• Casa Museo Rosalía de Castro
  The house where Rosalía de Castro spent the last years of her life until her death in 1885. Personal memorabilia of Rosalía and objects linked to the poetise were progressively amassed and a monographic museum was finally established on this great Galician woman.
  
  
• Museo “Casa de la Troya”
  The house which inspired Alejandro Pérez Lugán’s La casa de la Troya, which reflects aspects of Santiago society and customs of the second half of the 19th century. It recreates the atmosphere of a late-19th-century student hostel with its collection of furniture, pictures, photographs, objects and elements that belonged to some of the people who inspired the novel.
  
  
• Fundación Wenceslao Fernández Flórez
  The Fernández Flórez foundation was established for the purpose of acquiring the author’s house in Cecebre (Cambre-A Coruña) and organises activities relating to the study of the writer’s work, as well as cooperating with university research teams, among many other activities.
  
  
• Casa Museo Curros Enríquez
  The architecture of the home of the poet Manuel Curros Enríquez is typical of a 19th-century Galician country house. It is currently being rebuilt and will soon be completed. The subsequent phase involves the design for its conversion into a museum and the establishment of what is already called Casa dos Poetas (House of the Poets).
  
  
• Casa Museo Ramón del Valle Inclán (Vilanova de Arousa)
  House located in the old part of the coastal town of Vilanova de Arousa where Ramón José Simón del Valle Peña, who later became known in the literary world as Ramón del Valle-Inclán, was born and grew up. The house-museum has a collection of first editions of the writer’s works and is the starting point of the literary tours of the geography on which Valle-Inclán’s aesthetic was based and the backdrops that provide an insight into his childhood.
  
  
• Casa Museo Hermanos Camba
  The birth home of Julio and Francisco Camba is situated in Vilamaior, in Vilanova de Arousa. It is a typically Galician stone house with an external staircase and coat of arms on the façade. For the past few years the birth home of the Camba brothers has housed the municipal public library that bears their name, though the council plans to restore the house to its proper use, namely to honour the memory of the two writers by establishing a house-museum.
  
  
• Casa Museo Ramón Cabanillas
  The birth home of Ramón Cabanillas is a small coastal building situated in the district of Fefiñáns, in Cambados, which was refurbished and converted into a house-museum in the 1990s. The so-called “poet with a pedigree” was born here in 1876 and this writer’s life and oeuvre have been recreated.
  
  
  
  MADRID
  
  
  
  
• Museo Casa Natal de Cervantes
  The Cervantes museum and birth home is a monographic museum owned and run by the Madrid regional authorities, and is located in the building where, according to scholars, the writer was born. It recreates the various ambiances of a well-to-do 16th- and 17th-century home by means of a décor that is designed to convey to the visitors who enter its rooms the presence of its inhabitants going about their daily affairs.
  
  
• Fundación Lázaro Galdiano
  The magnificent works of art housed in this museum are located in the house and environment that once constituted the microcosm of the Lázaro family and served as a backdrop to the literary and artistic gatherings of a group of significant Spaniards at the beginning of the 20th century.
  
  
• Museo Romántico
  Established by Don Benigno de la Vega-Inclán y Flaquer, 2nd Marquis of La Vega-Inclán (1858-1942), by means of a bequest to the state. On 22 October 1921 he showed a large set of pictures, furniture and objects he owned in the exhibition held at the Society of Friends of Art, giving a foretaste of what was to be the future museum. The museum was opened to the public in 1924.
  
  
• Museo Sorolla
  This museum was established on the wishes of Sorolla’s widow, Clotilde García del Castillo, who bequeathed her whole estate to the State in 1925 in order to found a museum in her husband’s memory. Joaquín Sorolla García, the Sorollas’ only son, was the first director of the museum until his death. Joaqúin made a will in 1941 bequeathing further holdings to the state. The house was built between 1910 and 1911, and the family took up residence there at the end of 1911. Sorolla attempted to separate his work area, consisting of three interlinked studios with direct access from the garden, from the dwelling area, which was comprised of a large sitting room, dining room and small living room on the main floor, and the four bedrooms of the couple and their three children on the second floor, arranged around a hall.
  
  
• Casa Museo Lope de Vega
  The house of Lope de Vega, built in typical 17th-century Madrid style, was bought by the writer in 1610. Although it has undergone alterations, it is the same house where the poet lived. After remaining closed for some time, it has been refurbished and some quarters are as they would have been when Lope de Vega lived in them. It preserves part of the furniture that belonged to the poet and a courtyard with a well.
  Collection Benedito (Manuel Benedito Vives)
  The museum is located in the mansion-studio of the painter Manuel Benedito Vives (1875-1963). He was a disciple of Sorolla.
  
  
• Fundación Antonio Maura
  Foundation based in the same house where Don Antonio Maura lived from 1898 until his death in 1925. The aim of the foundation is to promote historical research on the man and his period.
  Fundación Casa de Alba
  Art museum housed in the Palacio de Liria. Visits must be arranged by appointment.
  Museo Estudio Sotomayor
  A house-museum open to all. It is privately owned and permission is required for visits.
  
  
• Palacio Real de Aranjuez
  Located between the rivers Tajo and Jarama, it was used as a royal residence back in the reign of the Catholic Monarchs. The palace’s current decoration dates particularly from the 18th century. Outstanding features are the Porcelain Room and the Hall of Mirrors. The “Museo on Palace Life” on the ground floor contains fascinating items illustrating daily life in the royal residences.
  
  
• Real Casa del Labrador
  During the 18th century, Spanish kings embellished the Royal Seat of Aranjuez with renovations and new works. The most important of these include the extensive Prince’s Garden, with architectural works such as the gates leading to the garden, the fountain of Apollo and the pond with its classical and Chinese-style pavilions designed by Juan de Villanueva, who also designed the mansion known as the Casa del Labrador. The residence houses one of the most important collections of neoclassical decorative arts in Europe.
  
  
• Palacio Real de Madrid
  The Royal Palace of Madrid is the official residence of His Majesty the King of Spain, who uses it for state ceremonies, though he does not reside there. Rich materials were used for its interior decoration, which has undergone changes over time in accordance with the different artistic styles of each period.
  
  
• Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial
  El Escorial, designated a World Heritage Site, was the political centre of the empire of Philip II and the place where he established his palace and library, his own pantheon and those of his parents Charles I and Isabella of Portugal, his relatives and successors; built a grand basilica; and founded a monastery.
  
  
• Casita del Príncipe
  Built by Juan de Villanueva for the future Charles IV. It is sumptuously decorated with Pompeian-style mural paintings and neoclassical stuccowork on the ceilings. The garden and original grounds remain intact.
  
  
• Casita del Infante
  It was conceived as a place to receive guests and listen to music and is beautifully decorated in neoclassical style.
  
  
• Palacio Real del Pardo
  Set in the wooded parkland known as the Monte de El Pardo, an area of nearly 16,000 hectares to the north of Madrid, is the Palace of La Zarzuela, the residence of Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain.
  
  
  
  NAVARRE
  
  
  
  
• Casa Museo Julián Gayarre
  The Julián Gayarre foundation was established in November 1989 and is made up of the tenor’s relatives, Roncal council and the regional government of Navarre. The foundation is aimed at promoting initiatives that pay tribute to Julián Gayarre, ensure the conservation, protection, growth and safekeeping of his heritage and any future assets; disseminating knowledge of him; and encouraging studies and promoting activities related directly or indirectly to the figure of Julián Gayarre.
  
  
• Casa Natal de Santiago Ramón y Cajal
  Website published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Don Santiago Ramón y Cajal in 2002.
  
  
• Museo del Castillo de Javier
  The castle, whose origins date back to the 10th century, has been undergoing archaeological restoration since the 1950s. It was converted into a museum in 1986. In addition to its interest as a defensive construction and as the residence of several influential families of Navarre (the Aznárez, Artieda and Jaso-Azpilicueta families, since the 16th century), it houses many art works and historical documents.
  
  
• Museo Gustavo de Maetzu
  Located in the grounds of the former Palace of the Kings of Navarre, the only example of Romanesque civil architecture in Navarre and a magnificent late 12th-century building. The museum was previously situated in Maeztu’s former studio in Calle Astería, where the painter had distributed his oeuvre selectively by themes. Fully integrated into life in Estella, where he had settled in 1936, the artist donated his collections to the city shortly before his death.
  
  
  
  BASQUE COUNTRY
  
  
  
  
• Laia. Museo del Producto Artesanal del País Vasco
  
  
  
• Museo de Ignacio Zuloaga
  The Zuloaga collection is on show to the public in the studio of the Basque painter, a museum displaying his private collection and a chapel on the pilgrimage route to Santiago. These premises house major canvas paintings by Ignacio Zuloaga as well as works of art that the painter collected throughout his life.
  
  
• Museo Chillida-Leku
  The Zabalaga country house, which stands 15 kilometres from San Sebastián, was built in the 16th century and was bought and restored by the sculptor in 1982. The adjacent grounds hold over 40 large sculptures fashioned from iron and granite.
  
  
• Museo Taller de Julio Beobide-Kresala
  Exhibits sculptures and drawings by the artist from Zumaia.
  
  
  
  VALENCIA
  
  
  
  
• Casa Museo Alberto Sols García
  Located in Sax, in Medio Vinalopó, the house was acknowledged by the regional cultural authorities as a museum collection in 1994. It is currently being rebuilt, as it was the birthplace of the prominent scientist, who was born in 1917 and died in Madrid in 1988. It will house the valuable legacy that the Sols family donated to the council.
  Museo del Poeta Pastor Aicart
  Pastor Aicart was a poet and physician (1849-1917) who has a small museum devoted to him in Benajama town hall containing his furniture, memorabilia, writings and books.
  
  
• Casa Museo La Asegurada
  An interesting museum devoted to 20th-century art. It originated in the collection given by the artist Eusebio Sempere to the city of Alicante, which is mainly comprised of works by Spanish artists of the generation of the 1950s.
  
  
• Casa Museo de Azorín
  The Azorín house-museum is a centre for documentation and research on the writer and his time, as well as displaying a permanent exhibition of objects related to the writer. Its main purpose is to disseminate the work of Azorín. As a research centre, it boasts an interesting periodicals and newspaper library that is progressively growing, completing the collections owned by Azorín and his family, and three libraries: the family library, the private library and that known as the world of Azorín and his environment.
  
  
• Fundación Cultural Miguel Hernández
  The house-museum preserves the furniture and household items typical of early 20th-century homes in Orihuela, together with photographs of various moments in the poet’s life.
  
  
  
• Casa Museo Navarro Santafé
  The museum is located on the ground floor of what was once the home of the prominent sculptor from Villena, who is considered the best animal sculptor in Spain. This is borne out by the “Monument to the Bear and Arbutus Tree” in Madrid, the “Monument to the Horse” in Jerez de la Frontera, and the bullfighting sculptures.
  
  
• Casa Museo Benlliure
  The house recreates the intimate atmosphere of the family of Don José Benlliure, which is characteristic of a late-19th-century bourgeois dwelling. Particularly interesting are the drawing room, study, dining room and bedroom, where visitors can admire his furniture, personal objects, sketches and notes. It also displays an interesting selection of the artistic work of José Benlliure and his son Peppino, as well as a few examples by Sorolla, Muñoz Degrain and other illustrious Valencia artists. Interesting romantic-style garden.
  
  
• Casa Museo José Segrelles
  This house-museum was designed and built by the artist in 1942. The entire decoration was José Segrelles’s idea and remains as it was when he lived there.
  
  
• Casa Museo Blasco Ibáñez
  The reconstructed house of the famous Valencian writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, which is located in the incomparable setting of Malvarrosa beach and is now a house-museum, contains memorabilia, personal objects and literary works. The house-museum attests to the extremely rich and varied literary and personal life of the author of La Barraca. Exhibits include everyday objects from his family environment, works by his artist friends and first editions of his publications. A must for lovers of literature.