The Museum of Malaga, also known as the Palacio de la Aduana because of its historical background, is nowadays one of the most important and largest exhibition centres in the city.
The museum is divided into several floors within which there are two museums: the Museum of Fine Arts and the Archaeological Museum.
The number of works and pieces on display is staggeringly large. It has more than 15,000 archaeological pieces and more than 200 works of art dating from the 19th and 20th centuries.
For this reason it is the fifth largest museum in Spain and the largest in Andalusia.
I must say that this museum is so big that it takes 3 or 4 visits to visit it in its entirety, as it has a surface of more than 18.000 m2. As you can see, it is so large that it takes several visits to appreciate all the art and history.
Today I will tell you a little of the history of the building and show you what is called the Visible Warehouse which is on the ground floor with many archaeological pieces. Soon I will make more visits to bring you more of this emblematic museum of the city.
Originally this large building, built in the 18th century, was to be the Customs House or Palacio de la Aduana, whose purpose was to serve the port traffic, and is located next to the city park. Today it is the Museum of Malaga.
Although it was originally intended to be the city's Customs House, it was initially a tobacco factory.
It was built on land where there was originally sea and after a large project these territories were gained to the sea. It has a neoclassical style due to the great influence of the renaissance style of the time, but it is also close to the baroque style.
In its main entrance, it is decorated with many palm trees which gives a very particular view to the façade.
The inner courtyard is a beauty, on this occasion I visited it after dark, but the view is spectacular all the same. In future visits I will show you the beauty of the inner courtyard during the day. At night it is beautifully illuminated and generates a very good warmth and aesthetics.
The works and pieces of history that are exhibited in it were stored for more than 20 years without a precise place or destination, without a place to exhibit them.
Since 2016 it has been considered a cultural entity or asset of cultural interest, one of the most highly valued in Spain.
First the Museum of Fine Arts was inaugurated in 1916, then the Archaeological Museum of the province in 1947 and then the joint inauguration in 2016.
The visit is free for all citizens of the European Union and is open from Tuesday to Sunday. For non-citizens the entrance fee is only 1.5 euros.
On this occasion I will show you part of the entrance, from the ground floor. As I told you, I visited it in the evening hours, so the views change a lot. It was a rainy day.
The interior façade is beautiful where the marble stands out, both in the columns, the floor and the enormous staircases. The inner courtyard due to the rain looked very particular between the lighting and the glitter of the water on the floor.
The visit begins with what is called the Visitable Warehouse.
There you will find many resources of supreme interest to the museum, as they are works under restoration, some of which are permanent and others temporary.
It is also true that all these pieces are of great value not only historically but also didactically.
Much of what is shown here are pieces found in archaeological sites, and that is the most surprising thing. Some of them are complete and others only part of them. There is very good lighting throughout the museum, as the pieces are very well protected.
Before arriving at the warehouse I came across a room where at that time they were exhibiting a very beautiful nativity scene, as at that time it was still Christmas time.
When I entered the Visible Warehouse I found a lot of history and art at the same time. Archaeological pieces of all kinds, some as I said were complete and others only a piece.
Walking through each corridor was incredible, you could breathe a climate of a lot of culture, but also the smell of earth, ancient, stone, wood, clay. A lot of materials in all these archaeological works.
On the walls there were many varied and ancient paintings on display, and often because of the thinness of the corridors and the height of the works it was difficult to take photographs and the lights focused on them.
Vases, pots, pieces of stones written centuries old. Everything is very well ordered and classified and you could also see that many of the works had undergone a great deal of restoration work.
I particularly like this ground floor because of that, it represents the history, but also the great work of finding these important pieces that speak of centuries and restoring them as much as possible.
I could see mosaics forming different figures, many of which could not be restored. There were also construction pieces, tools that were used. The mosaics are arranged on the walls as if they were placed on wood so that they could be appreciated very well.
In the case of the sculptures, I could see pieces of them, as if it was the only thing the archaeologists had been able to find, heads, feet, torsos, everything separately.
Then I went into a very interesting room where I could see all kinds of pots, vessels and many other objects that were used in daily life. There was a lot of beauty in them, especially the colours and decorations.
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There was a scale model of the castles of Alcazaba and Gibralfaro. There were showcases displaying different elements, for example the objects used to saddle the horses.
In another of the corridors there were all kinds of seats from that period, belonging to the common household and I think not so common but beautiful with beautiful decorations and embroidery some and others more simple made of wood.
Boots and chests very well preserved as well as vessels in a very good state of preservation or perhaps almost completely restored.
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In one part of the room, everything was in showcases, especially sculptures and images of virgins and other objects that should be treated with great care. It is very noticeable how much care and delicacy has been given to this area and the safeguarding of any possible accidents that may occur.
But there were not only images in the showcases but also other objects such as furniture, which obviously need special care for some reason.
On the tour I came across numerous vessels of all kinds, pieces of stone, furniture, and many other equally marvellous pieces.
The arrangement of the pieces made it possible to observe them very well and closely, appreciating every detail. Although there are no detailed descriptions of each of the pieces, it was possible to appreciate the antiquity, culture and history in each of them.
By the time I finished the visit it was late in the evening, and the courtyard was even more beautiful than before, and you could see many other people visiting such a wonderful museum.
Thank you very much to all of you for accompanying me on this tour through this part of this artistic and archaeological museum. Best regards to all of you and see you next time.
Amonet.
