Located in the heart of the old town, the Banyoles Archaeological Museum houses one of the most significant and diverse archaeological and paleontological collections in the country. Its holdings are the result of more than one hundred and fifty years of discoveries and excavations in the Pla de l’Estany, at emblematic sites such as the caves of Serinyà, the Neolithic settlement of La Draga, the funerary caves of Martís and the paleontological complex of Incarcal.

The origin of the institution dates back to 1932, when the accidental discovery of the Roman villa of Vilauba during the construction of a road led to the creation of the Regional Museum of Antiquities, the precursor of the current facility.

From those modest beginnings, with just a single room, the museum has continued to grow, enriched by materials from numerous excavations and decades of archaeological research. Today, the museum covers an area of more than 2,300 m², including storage facilities, offices, educational classrooms, temporary exhibition rooms and a permanent exhibition fully renovated in 2025.

A visit to the museum offers an insight into the last 200,000 years of human history from the perspective of the Pla de l’Estany, through a route guided by the objects on display and complemented by audiovisual and museographic resources. Among the main highlights are the remains of an Etruscan rhinoceros from two million years ago, the Banyoles jaw —one of the most famous fossils of European prehistory—, the wooden tools from the Neolithic settlement of La Draga and the bronze deities from the Roman villa of Vilauba.

The origins of the Archaeological Museum

The embryo of the museum was the School of Arts and Trades of Banyoles, which opened its doors in 1928. So that the students could practise live drawing, two Romanesque capitals from the cloister of the monastery of Sant Esteve de Banyoles were brought to the building in 1931. One year later, in 1932, the Roman Villa of Vilauba (Camós) was discovered when building a road. Given the significance of the finding, it was decided to found a small museum, known at that time as the Museum of Local Antiquities. 

Initially, the Museum had just one room on the first floor. It was not until 1949 that a new room was opened, the Prehistory room, with palaeolithic era objects found at the caves of Serinyà.

In 1954, the building’s ground floor was renovated and expanded with a new History room, which exhibited materials from the Iberian, Roman, medieval and also modern periods. 

On 1 March 1962, it was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument by the Ministry of National Education. Thus, the institution now officially became the place for safekeeping material from the archaeological and palaeontological excavations in the Pla de l’Estany. With the advent of democracy, this status was ratified by the Government of Catalonia in 1982.
 

For more information, www.museusdebanyoles.cat

Address:
Plaça de la Font, 11
17820 Banyoles
Tel. (0034) 972 572 361
comunicaciomuseus@ajbanyoles.org