Abbey Palace – Municipal Museum

The ancient Abbey Palace was reconstructed in 1781 by the Abbot Esteban Lorenza de Mendoza y Gatica, given the state of ruin of the original palace within the Fortaleza de la Mota. The new building was the end result of the aggregation of several structures, brought together by the single façade.

This building was used until 1851, when the Abbey of Alcalá la Real was abolished. After years of uncertain future, it became the abbey archive and the home of the Archpriest of the Ecclesiastical Territory.

Currently, and after years of restoration, the Abbey Palace is the headquarters of the Municipal Museum. This new museum was created to display, preserve and promote archaeological, ethnological, anthropological, paleontological and scientific exhibits organised into different display areas using the latest technologies.Through innovative means, the museum allows visitors to become better acquainted with Alcalá la Real’s heritage and traces of its past. It gives visitors the chance to have an overview of the town’s peculiarities, places of interest and its surrounds. Exhibition spaces: The flour room (dedicated to flour mill traditions), geology, minerals and fossils, Paleolithic, Neolithic, Copper and Bronze, Iberian world, Roman world, medieval, etc.