FIRST LEVEL MUSEUMS

Biscay   |  Guipuzcoa  |  Alava  |  Navarre  |  French Basque Country

Chillida-Leku (Zumaia)
Chillida-Leku, or Chillida's place, is the home of the Basque sculptor's private collection, and a spot where his works can be displayed in all their splendour and with all their significance.

The Chillida family place the huge personal and bibliographic record of the artist at the public's disposal, as well as more than forty works by the illustrious sculptor.

Oceanographic Museum (San Sebastián)
Better known as the aquarium, this museum is located in the fishing port. Inside we find a marine natural history museum, a naval history museum,and the aquarium with live fish.

Here we mainly find Cantabrian and exotic fauna and flora with a star element: the deep-sea room, a large aquarium of almost 40 meters through which visitors can pass by a transparent tunnel. The tunnel is 360º, allowing visitors to feel surrounded by water and guaranteeing complete visibility of everything around it.

Naval Museum (San Sebastián)
Situated in the San Sebastián harbour, in an old building from the 18th century, this museum is born with the objective of contributing to the recuperation of the Basque Maritime Patrimony. It contains several pieces related to the history of the naval architecture and complementary industries, being a clear exponent of the relationship that the Basques have had with the sea throughout the centuries.

San Telmo Museum (San Sebastián)
The central themes of the museum are traditional culture and ethnography. It is located in an old building that used to be a monastery for Dominican monks. Most notable is its gallery devoted to the painter Ignacio Zuloaga.

Salt Museum (Leintz-Gatzaga)
From the Stone Age until 1972, the production of the so-called "white gold" has been the main economic activity of Leintz-Gatzaga, which, as the name itself indicates ("Gatzaga" means "salt mine" in Basque), holds very important salt mines which provided fame and prosperity to this town.

Exploited since the Roman Era, the salt mines were a source of prosperity, a guide for the life of the town as well as the reason for many disputes. It is different to other salt mines in that its salt does not need the sun: the salty water which came out of a spring boiled until it left a thick layer of salt.

Nowadays it is the Eugenio Otxoa Museum which is in charge of this tradition, showing us the traditional uses and other interesting aspects of salt production