1027 Best Sights in Spain

Tucked away in a 17th-century row house, this quirky museum tells the history of the locally made paprika, dubbed \"red gold,\" for which Jaraíz de la Vera is best known. The three floors feature audiovisual presentations and examples of grinding tools and recipes. The museum is the centerpiece of the village's annual pepper festival, held in August.

In Antigua, 8 km (5 miles) east of Betancuria, you can visit a restored white Don Quixote–style windmill that was once used for grinding gofio (toasted grain) flour and is now part of a museum devoted to Fuerteventura's cheese-making tradition. Next to the windmill are a craft shop and cactus garden. Incidentally, the modern metal windmills throughout the island were imported from the United States and are used for pumping water.

To catch a glimpse of how the Spanish bourgeoisie lived in the early 19th century, step into this former palace of a marquis. Each room sparkles with ornate period furniture, evocative portraits, and other historical artifacts culled from the height of Spanish Romanticism. It’s worth spending a few minutes admiring the flamboyantly decorated fans and backlit lithophanes as well as Goya's La Piedad, a little-known painting authenticated in 2011 that the museum acquired in 2023. The museum can be seen in an hour or two, but don’t rush out: the plant-filled interior patio is a lovely, tranquil place to enjoy tea and pastries.

In addition to the restored Roman amphitheater, built in the 1st century AD, you can see objects recovered in the excavation including theatrical masks, platters, and even hairpins.

Trace the evolution of dress in Spain here, from rare old royal burial garments to French fashion pieces of Felipe V's reign and the haute couture creations of Balenciaga and Pertegaz. Explanatory notes are in English, and the museum has a modern Spanish restaurant, Café de Oriente, overlooking the gardens.

More than 3,000 pieces of glass and crystal, lovingly collected by the owner, are displayed throughout this 18th-century mansion, which is a museum piece in its own right. The pieces, whether ancient Egyptian or from Europe's Lalique and Whitefriars, give a unique insight into man's decorative use of glass. Visits are by guided tour only.

Inside the 16th-century Regina Coeli convent is a museum devoted to liturgical art including wooden figures of saints, oil paintings of biblical scenes, altarpieces, and a collection of plundered treasures from the so-called New World.

Next to the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea stands the medieval convent of San Domingos de Bonaval. The museum within holds photos, farm implements, traditional costumes, and other items illustrating aspects of traditional Galician life. The star attraction is the 13th-century, self-supporting, spiral granite staircase that still connects three floors.

Fossils, gems, minerals, and more glitter beneath the lights at this under-the-radar museum housed in a hundred-year-old neoclassical building. 

A small but mighty collection of Goya's works, particularly engravings, are on view here. QR codes are convenient stand-ins for English-language placards.

This museum displays archaeological remains found in local caves including the Cueva de los Murciélagos and elsewhere; some date back to the Middle Paleolithic period some 35,000 years ago. You can also visit the remains of the Renaissance rooms in the castle, across the road, included in the admission. Visits to the museum and castle are by guided tour only.

An 18th-century waterfront fortress, Castillo de San José is now a stunning modern art museum designed by architect César Manrique. One of his paintings is on display, along with works by Cárdenas, Beaudin, Zóbel, Tàpies, and others.

Across the courtyard from the Museo de Bellas Artes, this museum, housed in a 19th-century palace, is devoted to the early-20th-century Córdoban artist Julio Romero de Torres (1874–1930), who specialized in mildly erotic portraits of demure, partially dressed Andalusian temptresses. Romero de Torres, who was also a flamenco cantaor (singer), died at the age of 56 and is one of Córdoba's greatest folk heroes.

This stately mansion of writer and editor José Lázaro Galdiano (1862–1947) is a 10-minute walk across the Castellana from Museo Sorolla. Its remarkable collection spans five centuries of Spanish, Flemish, English, and Italian art. Bosch's St. John the Baptist and a number of Goyas are highlights, with El Greco's San Francisco de Assisi and Zurbarán's San Diego de Alcalá close behind. This museum can be seen as part of the Abono Cinco Palacios, a €12 pass that grants access to five local mansion-museums.

This 14-room, two-story gallery on Plaza Príncipe de Asturias is lined with canvases by Breughel, Coecke, and Ribera as well as other famed works created between the 16th and 20th centuries. Many memorialize local events. 

This palatial building showcases 70,000 items including textiles, furniture, jewelry, ceramics, glass, crystal, and metalwork. The collection starts with medieval and Renaissance items on the first floor and ends with 18th- and 19th-century pieces on the top floor. The ground floor rotates temporary exhibitions and avant-garde works. This museum can be seen as part of the "Abono Cinco Palacios," a €12 pass that grants access to five mansion-museums over a 10-day period.

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.

This museum, housed in the ancestral seat of the Calatrava Order of Knights, displays models of the Roman amphitheaters in Mérida (Extremadura) and Sagunto (near Valencia), both still in use, as well as costumes, pictures, and documents relating to the history of Spanish theater. Kids love handling the antique instruments previously used for sound effects during productions.

History buffs interested in old vessels and warships shouldn't miss the 500 years of Spanish naval history displayed in this newly renovated museum. The collection, which includes documents, maps, weaponry, paintings, and hundreds of ship models of different sizes, now features English-language placards and is fully wheelchair-accessible. Beginning with Queen Isabel and King Fernando's reign and the expeditions led by Christopher Columbus and the conquistadores, exhibits also reveal how Spain built a naval empire that battled Turkish, Algerian, French, Portuguese, and English armies and commanded the oceans and shipping routes for a century and a half. Moving to the present day, the museum covers Spain's more recent shipyard and naval construction accomplishments.

Most of the region's pottery is made in Talavera de la Reina, 76 km (47 miles) west of Toledo. At this museum you can watch artisans throw local clay, then trace the development of Talavera's world-famous ceramics, chronicled through some 1,500 tiles, bowls, vases, and plates back to the 14th century.

Two adjoining mansions on the Plaza de Maimónides (or Plaza de las Bulas) house this museum and it's worth a visit, as much for the chance to see a restored mansion as for the posters, Art Nouveau paintings, bulls' heads, suits of lights (bullfighting outfits), and memorabilia of famous Córdoban bullfighters, including the most famous of all, Manolete. To the surprise of the nation, Manolete, who was considered immortal, was killed by a bull in the ring at Linares in 1947.

In the Plaza de Toros, the Bullfighting Museum is a must for aficionados, with fine examples of matador costumes (the "suits of lights"), bull heads, posters, capes, and sculptures.

In the old Mesón de la Victoria, a 17th-century inn, this museum displays horse-drawn carriages and carts, old agricultural implements, folk costumes, a forge, a bakery, an ancient grape press, and painted clay figures and ceramics.

Designed by celebrity architect Rafael Moneo, this contemporary art museum and event space is on the University of Navarra campus. It has an exceptional photograph collection dating to the birth of photography as an art form, and the permanent art collection features classic works by Rothko, Picasso, Kandinsky, and Tàpies.

Part of the Fundació Vila Casas, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting contemporary Catalan art, this factory-turned-boxy-modern-gallery in Poblenou features over 300 paintings from the 1960s to present day. The only prerequisite is that the artist must be born in or live in Catalonia; otherwise, there are no rules on content or media, leading to a diverse and energetic collection that hops from ocean-scapes to portraits to collage. Take a lap around the quiet gardens outside to spot the sculptures.

Just downhill to the right of the Palau Nacional, the Catalan Museum of Archaeology holds important finds from the Greek ruins at Empúries, on the Costa Brava. These are shown alongside fascinating objects from, and explanations of, megalithic Spain.

Just inside the old city portal arch, this museum houses a collection of paintings, sculptures, and photography from 1959 to the present. The scope of the collection is international, but the emphasis is on artists born or living in Ibiza during their careers. There is little explanatory material in English, however. There is also an underground archaeological site in the basement, some items dating back to the 6th century BC.

The Episcopal Palace near the cathedral contains the wide-ranging collections of Girona's main art museum. On display is everything from superb Romanesque majestats (carved wood figures of Christ) to reliquaries from Sant Pere de Rodes, illuminated 12th-century manuscripts, and works of the 20th-century Olot school of landscape painting.

Established in what used to be a port warehouse, this state-of-the-art interactive museum makes you part of Catalonian history, from prehistoric times to the contemporary democratic era. After centuries of "official" Catalan history dictated from Madrid (from 1714 until the mid-19th century Renaixença, and from 1939 to 1975), this offers an opportunity to revisit Catalonia's autobiography. Audio guides are available in English. The rooftop restaurant (1881 per Sagardi) has fabulous harbor views.

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.