Andalucía’s best museums at a glance
Best museum with kids: Navigation Pavillion, Seville
Best art museum: Picasso Museum, Malaga
Most unusual museum: Museo Lara, Ronda
Best history museum: Casa de Sepharad, Cordoba
Andalucía is a magical region of Spain, with so much to do. It’s best known for its natural beauty, its serene white villages, and the magnificent monuments, buildings and culture in its city – especially flamenco.
It’s also home to some of Spain’s best museums – from world class art and history museums, to the downright bizarre and unique. Here’s my pick of the ten best.
Further down the page you’ll also find a more comprehensive list of museums in Andalucíá worth visiting.
Top 10 museums in Andalucía
Museo Lara (Ronda)
Witchcraft, weaponry, the Spanish Inquisition, clocks – and everything in between.
What is it?
The private collection of an eccentric collector, who still lives upstairs.
Why visit?
I can honestly say there’s no other museum in Andalucía like this. Across a number of sprawling rooms and two floors, explore the wide ranging artefacts Juan Antonio Lara Jurado – now in his eighties – has spent his life collecting.
There are rooms on all sorts of things, from posters to sewing machines, guns to cameras. Most interesting are the Spanish Inquisition and witchcraft sections. And across the museum, you’ll find a whole host of oddities – including a medieval dildo machine (yes, you read that right.)
Where is it?
In the beautiful city of Ronda. Read my guide to Ronda here.
Interactive Music Museum (Málaga)
Hands on exhibits, flamenco shows and a whole lot of fun
What is it?
A journey through music and the history of musical instruments from across the world.
Why visit?
There are plenty of museums about music across Spain. But this is surely the most fun to visit. Home to a huge collection of musical instruments from every corner of the globe, it provides loads of hands on exhibits and interactive installations to learn about – and listen to – music from across the world.
There’s even a room to try your hand at some of the instruments. And for an additional charge on your ticket, you can watch a flamenco show! Visit website.
Where is it?
Málaga’s historic centre – a beautiful, underrated city. Malaga is also home to many more excellent museums – read my guide to Malaga’s best museums.
Navigation Pavilion (Seville)
State of the art hands-on exhibits about navigation & sea travel.
What is it?
A beautiful museum charting Seville’s relationship to water.
Why visit?
Originally built for Seville’s 1992 Universal Exposition, the Navigation Pavilion was restored and reopened in 2012. It’s a gorgeous building, and on the inside it’s one of the most stunningly arranged museums I’ve ever visited.
Across four exhibition rooms it tells the story of famous sailors, the history of navigation and the realities of life aboard a boat. There’s a heavy emphasis on interactivity, including some really fun games where you get to try your hand at different aspects of life on an exploration ship, making it one of the best museums to visit with kids. There are also plenty of models of famous ships from different eras, and an observation tower with great views across Seville. Visit website.
Where is it?
On the Island of Cartuja, close to the historic centre of Seville.
Cádiz Museum
Ancient Phoenician coffins and artefacts from Europe’s oldest city
What is it?
A museum detailing the history of Cádiz.
Why visit?
It might be odd to put a municipal museum on a list of the most unique museums in Andalucía. After all, every city in the region has one. But this isn’t any old municipal museum. It charts the history of Cádiz – a major Phoenician trading post, and Europe’s oldest continuously inhabited cities.
Best of all, it’s home to two Phoenician sarcophagi – two large ancient coffins, one in the shape of a male and one in the shape of a female. Thousands of years old, astonishingly well preserved, with an unbelievable story behind them. Cádiz museum is wonderful. Visit website.
Where is it?
In the centre of the coastal town Cádiz. Read my guide to Cádiz.
Casa de Sefarad (Córdoba)
The best museum to learn about Andalucía’s Sephardic Jewish history
What is it?
A small but excellent museum about Sephardic Jewish history and culture.
Why visit?
Across Andalucía, you might hear mention of its Jewish heritage. Until 1492, when they were expelled by the Catholic Monarchs, there was a large Jewish community across the Iberian Peninsula, known as the Sephards.
Córdoba has one of the best preserved Jewish quarters in all of Spain – and since 2004, it’s had this excellent museum, the best place to learn about Spanish Jewish history and culture.
Housed in a 14th century building, it explores the daily life of Sephardic Jews in Córdoba, their culture and festivals. It also features a powerful exhibition on the Spanish Inquisition and the persecution Jews in Spain, and specifically in Córdoba, faced. Finally, there are exhibits on ongoing Sephardic Jewish culture – including music, language, and the diaspora now found across the world. A really eye-opening, and excellent museum. Visit website.
Where is it?
In Córdoba’s Jewish Quarter, a short walk from the famous mosque.
Read my guide to Córdoba’s Jewish quarter.
Museo Cuevas del Sacromonte (Granada)
Discover Granada’s recreated cave dwellings
What is it?
An open air museum featuring 10 carefully recreated caves to chart Granada’s Romani heritage.
Why visit?
For centuries, in the district of Sacromonte in Granada, people lived in manmade caves. In this excellent museum, this tradition is kept alive. Across ten recreated caves, it charts the life of the inhabitants of these caves, mostly Romani people as well of Muslims, and their culture.
It also dedicates space to the history of flamenco, which has strong links to the communities who lived in these caves. And in the ‘world cave’, it looks at communities the world over who have lived in manmade caves such as these. One of the most unique and interesting museums in all of Andalucía.
Museo Picasso Málaga
An art-lovers pilgrimage in the city of Picasso’s birth.
What is it?
One of Andalucía’s most-visited museums, charting the career of Picasso in a 16th century palace.
Why visit?
Few regions, or even whole countries, can claim an artist as iconic as Pablo Picasso as one of their own. So don’t miss this chance to explore the Cubist master’s career in the city of his birth. It doesn’t cover every era of his career, and most of his most famous works are elsewhere, but it’s a breathtaking museum showing the astonishing range of his work. And there’s something magical discovering it all in Málaga, where it all started.
The museum also hosts generally excellent temporary exhibitions. And in the basement are a series of ruins from Phoenician and Roman Málaga.
Where is it?
In the heart of Málaga’s old town. Visit website.
Pompidou Centre Málaga
A slice of one of the world’s best collections of modern art in a striking building.
What is it?
The first Pompidou Centre offshoot outside of France, showcasing a rotating collection of the museum’s contemporary art collection.
Why visit?
With its rotating exhibits from some of the best works in the Pompidou’s vast collection, this is surely one of the best places to see modern art in all of Spain. It features plenty of large installations and audiovisual works, and is one of the best art museums in Andalucía. Add to that its peculiar, striking building – known as the Cube – and you have one of the region’s most interesting museums.
Where is it?
By Málaga’s port.
Museum of Art and Popular Customs of Seville
Reconstructed workshops in a stunning neo-Mudejar building
What is it?
A folk museum to learn about Andalucían traditions and culture, featuring historic workshops
Why visit?
We stumbled across this museum mainly because we had a spare afternoon in Seville, and I wanted to see inside the Mudéjar Pavilion – its beautiful home, and one of the loveliest buildings in Seville. But I’m so glad we visited. It’s one of the most interesting museums we discovered on our trip across Andalucía.
A folk museum, it tries to tell the history of everyday Sevillians. But this is no dusty, boring collection of old clothes. It features engaging exhibitions on different aspects of Seville’s culture – best of all is a number of rooms showcasing real workshops, from real historic Sevillian family businesses.
There’s also a really cool room of Sevillian pottery, where on one side of the room you’ll find the type of pottery more commonly seen in museums (ie collectibles), and on the other those donated by everyday Sevillians. Visit website.
Where is it?
The Mudejar Pavillion, in the Maria Luisa Park close to the Plaza de Espana.
Museo de la Manzanilla (Sanlucar)
Two centuries of winemaking history.
What is it?
A museum and winery, charting the history of sherry.
Why visit?
Founded in the 19th century, Bodegas Barbadillo was the first winery to bottle sherry. Now you can visit this historic site, home to the Manzanilla Museum, to learn about all aspects of the local drink. With a history of more than two centuries, sherry is one of the region’s most famous exports. And there’s no better place to discover it than here.
As well as self guided visits, you can book winery tours and tastings. Visit website.
Where is it?
Sanlucar de Barrameda, close to Cádiz and Jerez de la Frontera.
More unusual museums in Andalucía
Museo de Belenes – A museum of nativity scenes, a deeply rooted tradition in Spain. (Mollina – close to Málaga)
Cotidiana Vitae – A recreation of daily life in Roman Spain
Gibraltar Museum – Learn about the history of this peculiar slice of Britain on the Iberian Peninsula
Museum of Videogames – History of video games, old and new (Málaga)
Archivo General de Indias – Limited exhibitions in a building housing the archive of documents related to the Spanish Empire (Seville)
Museum of Flamenco Dance – Interactive displays and paintings exploring the phenomenon of Flamenco dance (Seville)
Castillo de San Jorge (Seville) – A small museum in a castle that was used as a prison during the Spanish Inquisition
Other major museums in Andalucía worth visiting
Museo Ibero (Jaen) – The only museum in the world dedicate to ancient Iberian culture
Málaga Museum – Andalucía’s largest museum, housing archaeological collections from Málaga
Museo Casa de los Tiros (Granada) – Granada’s main museum to learn about its rich history
Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla – Seville’s main art gallery, with religious and traditional Spanish art, including by El Greco
Read more Andalucía guides
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