Municipal Museum of Ciutadella

Ciutadella de Menorca, Spain

The Municipal Museum of Ciutadella is a general history and archaeological museum with a permanent exhibition on the history of Ciutadella and of the island itself from prehistoric times through to the Muslim era and the arrival of king Alfonso III in 1287. Visitors can take a tour through the island's various historical periods, represented by the archaeological remains and artefacts on display. The Historic and Artistic Museum of Ciutadella was officially opened in 1935 on the ground floor of the Town Hall.

The museum regularly holds temporary exhibitions to show particular historic periods not covered by the permanent exhibition, aspects of anthropology or recent acquisitions and new collections. The museum provides guided tours for groups, which should be booked in advance.

In 1995, it was moved to the Bastió de sa Font building which was one of five bastions built to protect the five entrances set into the walls around the town. The bastion originally served as a water tank and was filled by collecting rainwater. The permanent exhibition starts with the early settlers on the island and with a display cabinet on the pre-Talayotic period showing the way of life and customs of that era. After this, the Talayotic period is the subject of a large display dealing with the way of life, customs and relationships of this native culture of Menorca and Mallorca. The next section shows the Roman era. To end the exhibition on this period, there is a display cabinet on the origins of Christianity in Menorca and paleo-Christian basilicas. Lastly, there is an area on Vandal attacks, on the Byzantine Empire, the late Roman Empire and the beginning of the Muslim era in Menorca.

References:

Comments

Your name



Details

Founded: 1935
Category: Museums in Spain

More Information

www.menorca.es

Rating

3.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Yojhan Carrero (7 years ago)
As the price of the tickets are in several languages, they should condition the contents of the museum to those languages. Remember that you live for tourism and putting everything in the local language is not a good idea
Carl James (7 years ago)
Small but also quite cheap. Free guide pamphlets in a variety of languages are available. Well worth a visit.
Ian Gordon (7 years ago)
Gives a nice overview of the islands history from pre Roman and through the Tayliotic period.
Phalonia : (7 years ago)
Small museum with €2.50 entry fee. A small but decent collection of artefacts that have been found in the area which date back thousands of years. Extremely limited information in English, one section had no translation available at all. Good way to spend an hour on a rainy day, though this would be impossibly boring for children.
The Moosehead Nebula (8 years ago)
We went on Saturday afternoon. It closed at 2pm, not to open again until the following Tuesday.
Powered by Google

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Church of St Donatus

The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.

The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.

The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.