The Gernika Peace Museum
A must-see visit in Gernika
After a brief introduction to the concept of Peace, this interactive museum takes us back to the 26th of April 1937, the day on which bombs and fire reduced the streets of the town of Gernika to rubble.
It comprises various rooms exhibiting poignant audiovisual presentations narrated by the survivors of the tragedy themselves.
What can I see inside the museum?
The museum’s permanent exhibition is displayed on two floors:
First floor
1. What is Peace?
A wide range of ideas, concepts, thoughts and perspectives on peace, and in particular a contemporary idea in which peace, with the aim of resolving conflicts, emerges of its own accord and in a positive way in relationships between people. The history of peace should not just be the history of conflicts coming to an end.
2. What happened in Guernica at a time when peace had gone astray?
A reading of the history of Gernika-Lumo and the Spanish Civil War, the episode of the bombing and the exemplary lesson of peace offered by the survivors of that tragic event through their reconciliation with their assailants, as well as other reconciliations and mediations for peace in the world.
3. A Recreation of the Bombing of Guernica
26 April 1937: Everyone was Begoña
A recreation of the bombing of Gernika in the form of an audiovisual set in the dining room of a house in Gernika on the 26th of April 1937 (the room is in 3D).
4. In memoriam
An emotional audiovisual that invites us to reflect on the tragedy and destruction, but also on hope and life and the processes of reconciliation that have emerged in countries such as Northern Ireland and South Africa..
The semi-basement level is dedicated to temporary exhibitions, featuring three to four different exhibits per year.
Second floor
1. The bombing as told by the people who lived through it
Witnesses of the bombing of Gernika tell us what they experienced in a series of poignant audiovisuals. This exhibition presents testimonies collected at different times: those compiled by William Smallwood “Egurtxiki” in the 1970s and those compiled in 2018 by GOGORA, the Basque Government’s Institute of Memory, Coexistence and Human Rights.
2. What is the status of human rights in the world today?
A look at the world through Picasso's Guernica and a reflection on human rights as a prism through which to observe the status of peace in the world today.
More information
Time:
Closed from January the 1st to 30th, due to maintenance works.
HIGH SEASON OPENING TIMES
- From 3 APRIL to 15 OCTOBER and from 6 to 11 DECEMBER
- Monday: 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
- Tuesday - Saturday: 10:00 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Sunday: 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
LOW SEASON OPENING TIMES
- From 31 JANUARY to 2 APRIL and 16 OCTOBER to 28 DECEMBER
- Monday: closed
- Tuesday - Friday: 10:00 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Saturday: 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m and 4 to 6 p.m.
- Sunday: 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Price: Admission: €6 - Reduced rate: €4 - Saturday afternoons: free
Telephone: 94 627 02 13
Email: museoa@gernika-lumo.net
Visit the museum
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Visit the Euskal Herria Museum and the Peace Museum with a combined ticket.
The home of the Euskal Herria Museum is the magnificent Palace of the Count of Montefuerte, the Alegria Palace, built in 1733. It stands in a part of Gernika that was spared from the bombs that fell on the town in 1937, during the Civil War.
The Bombing Route is a self-guided interactive route that consists of 11 panels set up in different places in the centre of Gernika.
The town was bombed on the 26th of April 1937
