MUPAC – Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology of Cantabria

The MUPAC, the Museo de Prehistoria y Arqueología de Cantabria (Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology of Cantabria) was a must-visit for my while in Santander.

On over 2.000 m² they cover more than 2.600 exhibits.

The MUPAC is open from Tuesday til Sunday, from 10:00 to 14:00 and 17:00 to 19:30, in the summer time, Saturday and Sundays even til 20:00. The entry fee is 5 Euro.

The first thing you see, is a big cube with a lot of archaeological finds. Tooth, bones and parts of weapons and skulls. They have a lot of interactive installments, like multi-language displays and a virtual excavation site.

Another part of the exhibition recreates a cave and shows findings of tools, hunting equipment and other items of everyday life in the stone age.

The hall after that, had a lot of pillar showcases, in which you find carved teeth and bones. For example a wild goat or red deer. The amount of detail is amazing for pieces so early in human history.

The third quarter of the museum covers the early cantabrians, among them huge stelaes. The reach back to the pre-roman era of the iberian peninsular.

From there the museum takes you to the first contacts between iberian and roman culture. Findings from conflicts and war.

And this continues to the middle ages, and the contacts with Muslims and Visigoths.

The visit was quite interesting, however I expected to get to know more about the cantabrian and celtiberian tribes. On the one hand, it must be difficult to go into detail on "only" 2.000 m² with such a large timeframe to cover, and on the other hand, it shows that about many parts of the cantabrian / celtiberian history not that much is actually known.

But those parts, that are known, found and/or discovered, were presented in a appealing way. If you want to visit the museum, you should plan in around 45-60 minutes for your stay. If Santander is to far away from you, they even keep an virtual tour through the Museum ready. You can find it here: MUPAC Virtual Tour.

Link: MUPAC - Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology of Cantabria