Museo Paleontológico de Estepona image

Museo Paleontológico de Estepona

Tourist attraction Museum

Natural history museum featuring abundant displays of dinosaurs, marine-life fossils & flora. People often mention museum, free, ring, interesting, Estepona,


Address

C. Matías Prats, 110, 29680 Estepona, Málaga, Spain

Website

www.estepona.es

Contact

+34 952 80 71 48

Rating on Google Maps

4.10 (184 reviews)

Open on Google Maps

Working Hours

  • Sunday: 9 am to 3 pm
  • Monday: Closed
  • Tuesday: 9 am to 3 pm
  • Wednesday: 9 am to 3 pm
  • Thursday: 9 am to 3 pm
  • Friday: 9 am to 3 pm
  • Saturday: 9 am to 3 pm

Featured Reviews


Frequently mentioned in reviews: museum (15) free (7) ring (6) interesting (6) Estepona (6)
Reviews are sorted by relevance, prioritizing the most helpful and insightful feedback at the top for easier reference.
  • 5/5 Turista I. 3 years ago on Google • 141 reviews
    An excellent little museum, a real gem. Some small-town museums are not very good, but this is great. And even better since the ground floor revamping in Spring 2021. If you wonder if it will interest children, I can tell you that my visits are under conditions that you are unlikely to replicate: accompanied by 110 Primary school children, who were thrilled by the museum's exhibits It is underneath the main seating in the Bull-Ring, opposite the Marina. Just walk around the outside of the ring until you come to a little archway that says "Museos Municipales" It's free, but not suitable for wheelchair users above the ground floor. There is no drinks or snacks machine - take your own bottles of water Firstly the Bullfighting museum. On the right as you enter, and at the start there is a low wall on your left. Peer over it and you'll see the passageway through which they release the bulls into the ring when there are bullfights on. Not very often, and never during museum opening hours! On either side of the passageway are the "cells" in which the bulls are kept prior to being released into the ring Also in the entrance to the Bullfighting museum, on the floor, are what seem to be square wooden manhole covers. Take off a lid and have a look: there's a grille covering a peephole down into one of the cells The museum itself is made up of souvenirs of famous bullfighters and famous bulls. The shirts and jackets of the former, the heads of the latter. It is interesting to see up close the fancywork on the jackets - embroidery and sparkle. They are called Trajes de Luces - Suits of Light - because of the way that the sun catches the sequins. Just imagine what these jackets cost! Unless they come from a family with a long bullfighting tradition and thus wealth, these young men are from modest origins. How could they afford them? Either now or at the end you can ask the very helpful staff to let you go into the ring - la plaza - and sit on the stepped seats and get a real feel for what a bull ring is like inside, without any of the bloodthirsty bits Then the Palaeontological section, which basically means fossils and dinosaurs. The fossils are local, the dinosaurs replicas of some bones dug up in Argentina, but no accompanying child is going to object to that! Quite some time can be spent here, as this is the section that is most obviously of interest to children. There are also some butterfly cases here; not sure why - they had to put them somewhere Then upstairs to the Ethnological museum. Estepona lived, in the past, on The Land and The Sea. Nowadays you add Tourism to that, of course. This museum shows us what were the everyday objects used in these two professions. So here we have sections devoted to the past. Not the distant past - some of the things displayed here were used in my youth! There is a section on farming in the twentieth century, with all sorts of weird and wonderful articles. I particularly like the farm-cart which is decorated with . . . a picture of an early motor tractor! To own such a machine would have been a dream to the modest farmer who had a donkey to pull his cart. Then there is the fishing section, with a whole boat. Estepona used to have 4 or 5 fish-canning and salting factories, one near the port on the Paseo Maritimo, the other where the big Carrefour Hypermarket is at the other end of the town. I know women in their early seventies who worked 18- 20 years in one of these. Assuming they began aged 13 or 14 (normal age), the factories were still going strong 40 years ago. Nowadays the fish is packed in ice and put into enormous refrigerated lorries and rushed off to the wholesale markets. Or bought by local shops and restaurants for our delight, of course. There's also the household section. Just look at the size of some of the bottles, jars, bowls. You could cook and serve a whole five-year-old child in some of the dishes! Masses to keep you occupied. Well worth a visit If I can say that I much enjoy my visits even when accompanied by 110 kids, then I am sure that you will too.
    3 people found this review helpful 👍

  • 4/5 Philip V. 4 years ago on Google • 113 reviews
    Nice little museum with some fossils, dinosaur skeletons, etnografic findings and bull fiting history. It's free and takes about 1 hour to visit. Additionally, the bull fiting arena can also be visited. However a controversial place, it's worth a visit.
    3 people found this review helpful 👍

  • 4/5 Nick N. 6 years ago on Google • 51 reviews
    The Paleontological Museum of Estepona is world famous. It contains a complete evolutionary record of a number of species of molluscs dating back to the Pliocene period, about 4 million years ago, all recovered from the same area, the alluvial plain on which Estepona is built. This collection is complimented by a complete record of the plants, vertebrates and crustaceans from the marine environment of the Pliocene in the vicinity of Estepona.
    2 people found this review helpful 👍

  • 5/5 Kitty K. 1 year ago on Google • 32 reviews
    I really liked your museum. When I arrived, I was greeted by a very nice museum worker. She showed me where the rooms are in the museum, and after my tour ended, she showed me where else to go in Estepona. Thank you very much, you are very kind and lovely people!
    2 people found this review helpful 👍

  • 3/5 John S. 2 years ago on Google • 329 reviews
    Fairly basic museum, most dinosaur skeletons are replicas of ones found in Argentina. Top floor has agricultural machinery and other artefacts. Bull ring itself is valid, but can see how they performed. Free entry, but donotation requested. Max time is 1 hour.

  • 4/5 David W. 2 years ago on Google • 37 reviews
    Lovely little museum, combining paleontology, local history like fishing and bullfighting (the latter can be avoided if desired).
    1 person found this review helpful 👍

  • 4/5 Nigel P. 5 years ago on Google • 249 reviews
    Pretty interesting little place, situated within the bull room complex you will find an array of fossils, butterflies and even some dinosaur skeletons, there’s is also a second museo upstairs where they have some interesting film, fishing and farm exhibits on display, it’s all free and will keep the kids entertained for an hour or two, there is also free parking close by.

  • 5/5 pisica v. 4 years ago on Google
    Nice museum, interesting diplays.
    1 person found this review helpful 👍

  • 5/5 Eduardo Flores R. 5 years ago on Google
    Very, very beautiful and nice place to visit, open every day, is free of charges and has so many paleontological pieces that in hard to believe that is inside the Bullring arena. There is 3,museums inside. Amazing, historical and unique. Please don't miss this gem in estepona.
    1 person found this review helpful 👍

  • 4/5 Chris N. 2 years ago on Google • 108 reviews
    Nice small and free entrance museum.

  • 3/5 Siôn L. 5 years ago on Google • 15 reviews
    Very interesting place however could be laid out better with more signs etc.

  • 5/5 Kristi T. 4 years ago on Google
    Good stuff for free

  • 5/5 Thomas A. 4 years ago on Google
    Very interesting place well worth a visit Staff helpful and friendly.Much more than just bullfighting.

  • 1/5 Ari C. 5 months ago on Google • 1 review
    Online it said that it would be open but unfortunately when we arrived it was closed for some festival (they should have stated this on their website)


Call +34 952 80 71 48 Open on Google Maps

Amenities


  • Accessibility
    • ✓️ Wheelchair-accessible toilet
    • ✓️ Wheelchair-accessible car park
    • ✓️ Wheelchair-accessible entrance

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