Museo de Teruel

The Museo de Teruel, the provincial museum, is housed in the Casa de la Comunidad, a Renaissance palace of the sixteenth century in the old town of Teruel, and it is the best place to understand the long history of this part of Aragon. The building was the seat of the Community of Teruel, the medieval association of towns and villages of the area, and it was designed to express the importance of that institution. Its stone façade, its loggia or open gallery on the upper floor, and its interior courtyard give it the look of an Italian-style palace, with elegance and symmetry, and it is one of the most distinguished civil buildings of the city, a landmark of Aragonese architecture. Some of its older underground rooms, which include stables, are part of the visit.

The museum was founded in the early twentieth century, and its collections cover the whole of human history in the province. The archaeological section begins with prehistoric tools and the rock art of Levantine type found in the region, and it continues with the Iberian and Celtiberian peoples who lived here before the Romans, whose pottery, weapons and ornaments are on display. The Roman period is represented by inscriptions, sculpture and mosaics, and the medieval galleries show the Islamic and Christian eras, with Mudéjar heritage a particular emphasis. Teruel was a centre of Mudéjar art, and the museum includes ceramics, woodwork and architectural fragments that illustrate the craft of the Muslim artisans who worked under Christian rulers.

Teruel’s pottery tradition deserves a note. The city produced glazed ceramics in green and purple from the Middle Ages, and these form part of the display, and the ethnographic section shows tools, costumes and objects of daily life from villages of the province, giving a picture of the traditional rural economy. A fine arts section holds paintings and sculpture from the Gothic period to recent times.

The museum is also a venue for temporary exhibitions, some of them of high quality, including loans of paintings from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, which add context for the local monuments. The museum offers guides in Spanish, English and French, a cloakroom and facilities for groups, and entry is free. The hours are longer on weekdays than at the weekend, and the museum is closed on Mondays, so check the official information.

The museum is in the centre of the old town, a short walk from the Plaza del Torico and the Mudéjar towers of San Martín and El Salvador. The cathedral, the Church of San Pedro, with the mausoleum of the Lovers of Teruel, and the Casco Histórico are within easy reach, and the dinosaur park of Dinópolis lies a short drive away. A visit takes about an hour and a half.