5 Best Sights in Catalonia, Valencia, and the Costa Blanca, Spain

Housed in a former synagogue, this museum examines the history, daily life, and artistic and cultural traditions of Catalonia's Jewish communities in medieval times, with a focus on Girona. A highlight is the 21 stone tablets, one of the finest collections in the world of medieval Jewish funerary slabs. These came from the old Jewish cemetery of Montjuïc, revealed when the railroad between Barcelona and France was laid out in the 19th century.

The museum organizes conferences, exhibitions, and seminars. It also contains the Institut d'Estudis Nahmànides, with an extensive library of Judaica.

Inside the old hospital of San Juan de Dios, the MARQ has a collection of artifacts from the Alicante region dating from the Paleolithic era to modern times, with a particular emphasis on Iberian art.

Since 1954, the Palacio del Marqués de Dos Aguas has housed the Museo Nacional de Cerámica, with a magnificent collection of local and artisanal ceramics from ancient Greek, Iberian, and Roman times through the 20th century. The selection of traditional Valencian ceramics is especially noteworthy (look for the Valencian kitchen on the second floor).

The building itself, near Plaza Patriarca, has gone through many changes over the years and now has elements of several architectural styles, including a marvelous baroque alabaster facade. Embellished with carvings of fruits and vegetables, the facade was designed in 1740 by Ignacio Vergara. It centers on the two voluptuous male figures representing the Dos Aguas (Two Waters), a reference to Valencia's two main rivers and the origin of the noble title of the Marqués de Dos Aguas.

From pre-Roman objects to paintings and drawings from the notorious siege at the hands of Napoleonic troops, to the early municipal lighting system and the medieval printing press, artifacts from Girona's long and embattled past are exhibited in this fascinating museum. Rooms organized chronologically and by theme educate visitors on the ways the city has developed.

Inside the Romanesque Benedictine monastery is this museum, which contains interesting exhibits about the town's cork and fishing trades, and displays local archaeological finds.