The most interesting museums in (and nearby) San Sebastian that you can't miss

San Sebastian is one of the most beautiful cities that you will visit in your life. It is surrounded by nature and situated in a spectacular natural enclave. The city has been built around La Concha bay. San Sebastian is the ideal place to spend a few days and have a stroll through its beautiful beaches and its streets that are full of history. This city has as many as three urban beaches. Walking by La Concha beach and admiring its stunning views is one of the best plans you can make when visiting San Sebastian.

One of the main attractive aspects of the city is its cultural offer and its internationally well-known film festival, which takes place at the cultural center Kursaal every year. Since 1953, every year both national and international actors and actresses and cinema stars come to San Sebastian to participate in the film festival. Over time it has become one of the most famous and important film festivals in Europe.

Besides, if you love art, architecture, sculpture and history, you need to know that San Sebastian is one of the cities with the most museums in the entire Iberian Peninsula, it has twelve museums. Throughout the following lines we are going to look at some of the most important museums in San Sebastian.

1. SAN TELMO MUSEUM

San Telmo Museum, also known in Basque as the San Telmo Museoa, is the main museum of San Sebastian, located at Plaza de Zuloaga square in the Old Town of the city. This museum offers a walkthrough of the evolution of Basque society.  It was founded in 1902, and thus it is considered the oldest museum in the entire Basque Country. However, it actually opened its doors at the San Telmo building in the year 1932, because they gradually needed more and more space for the permanent collections and exhibitions.

The San Telmo building was originally a convent of Dominican friars from the XVI century, and its construction began in the year 1544 and was completed in 1565, by the Urgull Mountain in San Sebastian. The building is notorious for its transitional architecture between a gothic and a renaissance style. One of its special features is its cloister with an interior patio, which was built in a separate building and is not part of the main building. On the other side of the museum is the church of San Telmo.

It was in the year 1836 when the friars were expelled from the building and it became a military barracks due to the Confiscation of Mendizábal. In 1912 the building became a National Monument. To condition the building as a museum, the painter José María Sert was commissioned to cover the walls of the church, and for this he painted several canvases where scenes and stories from the life of the Basque people are narrated.

The building has undergone further renovations in recent years and features temporary and permanent exhibitions. The permanent exhibitions that you can visit in the San Telmo museum are several: The Challenges of Our Society, Traces of Memory, Awakening of Modernity and the Historical Art Collection.

The main theme of the permanent exhibition is the development and evolution of the individual over time and the evolution and characterization of Basque society. It is a fundamentally ethnographic-themed exhibition and society and the individual are the fundamental themes. We can highlight the exhibition "The challenges of Our Society" where the problems facing today's society are promoted and presented, such as sustainable development, equality and human rights through videos, audiovisuals and new technologies.

The museum also includes different types of activities such as: basketry, family activities and guided tours. In the temporary exhibitions, it should be noted that at the moment you can see the exhibition "Al Abrigo del Urgull Estampas de San Sebastián" where you can take a tour of the evolution of the city of San Sebastián. The San Telmo museum can be visited from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

2. TABAKALERA

Tabakalera is a cultural center in San Sebastian, located in the Plaza de las Cigarreras in the center of the city and near the Urumea river. This center receives this name because it was the old building where the local cigars were made between 1913 and 2003.

This cultural center offers a public program of activities and exhibitions, as well as a center for the creation and production of contemporary art. Here contemporary culture is promoted in all its phases: research, production and exhibition.

Tabakalera has contemporary art exhibitions and also several cinemas that focus on offering contemporary films that offer different points of view and a wide variety of themes that are different from those that appear in the rest of the cinema rooms.

In this building, seminars and projects, presentations and debates are also promoted. Its library called Ubik stands out and it is open to all citizens who are interested in visiting it. It also has a digital culture and technology laboratory called Hirikilabs, where different digital activities can be carried out.

3. ARTEUPARTE GALLERY AND GRAPHIC STUDIO (TABAKALERA)

This space is an art gallery, studio and store that revolves around art, urban culture and urban and street art. It is located inside the Tabakelera in the Plaza de Néstor Basterretxea as a store that promotes art and graphic works by mainly Basque artists, but also by international authors.

They also sell sustainably produced garments and clothing here, in addition to selling through their online store. They also have a magazine in which they publish the different novelties that can be found in their store. If you visit Tabakelera, going through this gallery and shop is a great idea.

4. EUREKA! SCIENCE MUSEUM

This museum is located at Paseo de Miketelegi, in the Miramón technology park in San Sebastian. This is a museum dedicated to science, where there are various interactive exhibitions, a planetarium and guided activities. Its opening hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. It offers different types of activities to learn and spread knowledge about science, both for children and adults. The museum has a program of activities, animations and shows in addition to its permanent exhibition. In this museum you can carry out experiments in laboratories, guided tours as well as segway tours.

The permanent exhibition revolves around different scientific themes, and among which we can find the exhibition of "energy sparks room" where you can see and learn about electricity and magnetism. Other permanent exhibitions are: Mechanical World, Earth Ship, Light Games, Sense and Sensibility and Animalia.

We recommend visiting the Animalia exhibition, since it is designed for all audiences and it recreates three environments, which are the desert, the tropical forest and the sea, and you can discover these three different ecosystems. In this exhibition, there are animals found in these three ecosystems such as starfish and turtles. They also offer a Marine Aquarium in the Earth Ship exhibit.

In total there are eight thematic rooms where you can do different types of interactive activities and in which the Planetarium 3D stands out, which is a simulation room where you can see a projection on astronomy and the planets. Note that the museum also has an astronomical observatory in a 30-meter tower and a mini-botanical garden.

In this museum, there are many activities to do and between three and five hours are recommended to be able to tour the entire museum. It is a museum that offers a good plan to spend time with your family, since you can learn and enjoy the activities with children too.

5. BASQUE MARITIME MUSEUM

The Basque Maritime Museum or Euskal Itsas Museoa is located on Kaiko Pasealekua street in the Old Town and in front of the San Sebastian seaport. It was previously known as the Naval Museum. It is located at the Casa de la Torre del Consulado, a building of traditional Basque architecture from the 18th century.

This building has always been linked to the sea and since 1991 it has served as a museum. Here you can see the maritime heritage of San Sebastian and the Basque Country. It showcases more than 6,000 objects in the permanent exhibition, including navigation charts and instruments, nautical charts, postcards, photographs, art and engravings.

It also holds temporary exhibitions that have to do with history and culture. It has workshops on the top floor. This museum also has a library that is open to the public and you are welcome to visit it. It opens from Tuesday to Sunday, and offers the possibility of guided tours for all ages.

This museum can be visited while touring the Old Town and the seaport of San Sebastian, which is the area where the city originally developed.

6. SALA KUBO KUTXA

It is an exhibition hall located right next to the Kusaal cultural center, on Zurriola avenue and right in front of Zurriola beach. This space has temporary exhibitions that change from time to time and admissions are free. It is characterized by the quality of the exhibitions, which are usually paintings or photography, especially from the 20th century to the present day. This space is funded by the Kutxa Foundation, inaugurated in the year 2000, and has become one of the most popular exhibition spaces in San Sebastian.

We recommend visiting this exhibition space if you are visiting San Sebastian. It also offers the chance to view the exhibits with a guide. It is advisable to look at the opening hours as they can vary, although it normally opens at noon and closes at 8pm, from Tuesday to Sunday.

Some of the past exhibitions were "Goya through Contemporary Art", "American Pop Art", "Alejandro Garmendia", "Goenada" and "Gonzalo Chillida".

It also has various educational projects such as family activities and school visit programs, and activities for the general public. This exhibition hall wants to bring art closer to the public and this is one of its main missions.

7. CHILLIDA LEKU MUSEUM

Finally, we cannot forget this fantastic museum located in Hernani, a town a few kilometers away from San Sebastian. It is a museum dedicated to the Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida where many of his sculptures are exhibited. The museum opened in the year 2000 and is located on a 13-hectare estate.

The Chillida Leku museum is known for being unique since it integrates nature with art, and the whole place itself can be perceived as a great work of art, since the main thing is to establish harmony with nature and the natural environment in which it is located. In this museum, there are many sculptures in the open air and they are distributed throughout the natural environment. In the garden, there are many plants and trees such as magnolias, beeches and oaks, integrated with Chillida's sculptures.

One of the most important sculptures is the one called “Buscando la Luz” (“searching for the light”). They are made of stone, steel or granite. In this museum, there is also a French Basque-style house from the 16th century where you can visit other types of works made of other materials such as wood. There is also an exhibition of photographs.

You cannot miss the sculpture “Peine del Viento” (“Comb of the Wind”), located in the city of San Sebastian and also made by Chillida, which was designed to blend in with nature and the sea.

Other museums that you can also visit are the Cement Museum, which takes a tour of the history of cement and construction, and the Albaola Museum, which is a museum where you can see how different types of maritime vessels and small boats are built.

The city of San Sebastian is full of history and art. The city is open and cosmopolitan and more and more visitors come to this beautiful city every year. During your time in the city, you can stay at apartments in San Sebastian and you will be able to enjoy and visit all the little gems that this city has to offer, as well as enjoy the best cultural plans that you can do in San Sebastian.

The author of this article is Esther Vallejo Castro. She studied a degree in English language with a focus on culture, language, literature and linguistics at the University of Santiago de Compostela. Esther has also completed an MBA master's degree in Tourism with the ENEB of Barcelona. Esther loves languages, volunteering and teaching.