Barcelona Mammoth Museum
Museu del Mamut
Sadly, the Mammoth Museum of Barcelona closed its doors in mid-2016
In the neighborhood of La Ribera, more specifically in El Born, there is a museum that will amaze both children and adults. This is the Barcelona Mammoth Museum, opened in 2010.
The decoration of the museum takes visitors to the Ice Age, exposing the different species that inhabited the planet 2,000,000 years ago and shared with mammoth life on earth as the saber-toothed tiger, the cave bear and the steppe bison among others.
Upon entering the museum, there is exposed a large model representing an area surrounded by mountains and bordering the sea, with three rivers where mammoths lived 2 million years ago. It is surprising to know that this model represents the site now occupied by the city of Barcelona, the mountains are Montjuic, Collserola and Tibidabo, and the rivers are the Llobregat aside, the Besos on the other, and a third river in center that many people are unaware but still passes through Barcelona and matches La Rambla. The water of the third river is currently used for irrigation and to supply the Magic Fountain of Montjuic.
Chairing the main hall, visitors will find an atmosphere that simulates a day of snow that is very well made with a replica of a woolly mammoth and its baby. In this same hall, imposes a Sabertooth Tiger climbed a trunk that surprises by its size.
In a second room, behind the main one, visitors will find a skeleton of musk ox in excellent condition, species which by the way survives today in Canada and Greenland, but now extinct in Europe for over 9,000 years.
This lengthened room deserves extra attention for a special reason that visitors can go unnoticed. In fact, the entire museum is perfectly decorated and visitors can see paintings in the ceiling and walls. But this room specifically reproduces on its roof cave paintings corresponding to the Caves of Altamira in Santillana del Mar, Cantabria.
Continuing the tour at the museum, visitors will find other species that inhabited the earth during the period of glaciation. An example is the cave bear from which a reconstructed skeleton can be seen, and a recomposition from skeletal fragments of another specimen is exhibited. By observing the imposing skeleton of the animal, it is surprised to learn that although the Cave Bear was one of the largest carnivorous species of the Ice Ages, its diet made him a quiet and slow herbivore, besides being prey to the Neanderthals 80,000 years ago.
The bear is exhibited just beyond a replica of a Neanderthal skeleton man, now extinct. Worth mentioning that the Neanderthals and homo sapiens, two distinct species of the same genus, joined together for hunting mammoths.
It should also be mentioned another room with a replica of the woolly rhinoceros. To find horns of this species is very rare, but the Barcelona Mammoth Museum has a complete skeleton in perfect condition. If the visitor has the chance to get close and smell his horn will still notice its pungent odor, even after more than 12,000 years that is estimated the specimen on exhibition in the museum, old is.
Lyuba, a baby mammoth
In 2007, in the province of Yamal, a baby mammoth was found, calculated that died at the age of one month, 42,000 years ago. His death, was produced to the sink into a clay mass, which kept it in perfect condition and protected it from other carnivores. So, Lyuba, the name by which he was baptized honoring the woman of the deer rearer, was frozed and protected by the clay preserved not only perfectly its skin and its outside, but also internal organs which can contribute by investigating, valuable information to the world of paleontology.
The Mammoth Museum of Barcelona has the best replica that exists of Lyuba. The original mammoth baby lies in the museum of St. Petersburg in Russia.
The Barcelona Mammoth Museum is for everyone
The Mammoth Museum is not very big and visits will not be very long. However, paleontology enthusiasts, or with a minimum of knowledge about it, will undoubtedly enjoy the pieces exhibited there. The museum offers guided tours of about one hour time long, from HappyBarcelona.eu we highly recommend them. The guided tour they offered, and that was included in the price of admission, had children and adults in its audience, it was enjoyable for everyone and the guide answered all the questions raised by visitors with absolute professionalism.
It is worth visiting the Barcelona Mammoth Museum taking advantage of these guided tours, especially for children and those unfamiliar with the world of paleontology as the tour guide will make you discover the amazing and exciting life of animals living on our planet hundreds of thousands years ago. Explanations without which, the visitor is at risk of missing out the excellent material that is exposed at the museum. Which by the way, except for the Neanderthal man, all bones of the museum are authentic.
Immediately after the tour in which HappyBarcelona took part, there was offered to all attendees children to play a very entertaining and educational game relating to animals exposed in the museum, which is another reason to take the guided tour offered by the Mammoth Museum, if you are going with children.
Arranged Visits at the museum
The Barcelona Mammoth Museum has arranged visits for groups or schools. It also organizes special visits such as children's birthday parties or other activities in the enclosure.
If you think you can be interested in this type of visit, contact them to get more information.
How to get to Mammoth Museum
The museum is in Montcada Street number 1. Down the road a little down, is the Picasso Museum, which is best known. For those who specifically want to go to the Barcelona Mammoth Museum, they can take the metro line 4 and get off at Jaume I station. The metro station is adjacent to a large street called Via Laietana that leads to the port and to the Barceloneta neighborhood. This street is the borderline between the Gothic Quarter and El Born, both belonging to Barcelona’s old town. After crossing Via Laietana, you will find the Princesa St. To go to the Mammoth Museum, you have to go straight down this Princess Street until you reach Montcada Street. The museum is turning to the left.
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