Add a review about the National Anthropological Museum in Madrid

The National Anthropological Museum in Madrid was born from a collection collected by a certain doctor. Most of the exhibits reflected changes in the human body and various oddities in this area - in general it was roughly the same as the Kunstkammer created in Russia by Peter I. The doctor made a proposal to create an anatomy museum, as his collection grew, and the king agreed.

The museum appeared in 1875, this is the first anthropological museum in Spain. Anthropology is now not one discipline, but several, and they all study the origin and development of man and his existence in a cultural environment.

The Museum of Anthropology, respectively, is dedicated to the emergence, formation and cultural traditions of various peoples. And Spain, a few centuries formerly a huge colonial empire, has a lot of exhibits about this. Interesting? Still would.

The African section, for example, is filled with original items, including the rarest, there are African furniture, weapons, ritual objects - they are very few in the world.

The exposition

The museum is divided into zones by parts of the world.

The first section is devoted to Asia. Here you can see the remains of ancient people from this region and a lot of traditional objects reflecting the culture and religion of the region, from furniture to weapons. A special pride of the museum is the Philippine collection.

The second section is Africa. It is filled with original items, including the rarest, there are African furniture, weapons, ritual objects - they are very few in the world. If you want to see real shamanic African drums or 18th century warriors, here.

The American Hall is dedicated to the original inhabitants of America - the Indians. Here, too, many interesting things, a large collection of ritual objects and totems, weapons, and also there are dried heads and scalps - as a reflection of cultural traditions. Here you can see a large collection of Maya and Aztec art objects, masks of priests, for example, this is also very rare.

The European department contains household items collected from all over Europe, which residents used mainly a couple of centuries ago. The exposition allows you to notice the difference in regions and traditions - things from Spain do not look like things from Germany.

The physical anthropology department is organized in a separate exposition. Ancient people, their transformation into a modern version, various kinds of changes are all in this room. The very first exhibits of the museum, owned by the creator-doctor, are stored here.

All the halls of the museum are oriented to those countries in different parts of the world that were colonies of Spain: Mexico, Peru, Philippines, etc., exhibits from these countries here prevail. In this museum there are many things that have been little preserved; Life in Africa (and many other places) does not contribute to the preservation of things. Ancient weapons of Africa or the attire of monks of China - there are rarely such things in collections. But this museum is an exception

Mexican Hall

Practical Information

Address: Madrid, C. Alfonso XII, 68, Museo Nacional de Antropologia

The museum is located directly opposite the Atocha Renfe metro station

The museum is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30 to 20:00, on Sunday from 10:00 to 15:00.

Ticket price is 3 EUR (in the autumn of 2014), on Sundays the museum entrance is free.