Visit to the Maritime museum(Barcelona) located in medieval shipyard dedicated to protecting marine culture,exhibiting production process of shipyard, collection of variety of boats & maritime equipment.

On 5/9/22, we went on a visit to the Maritime museum. Its one of the best museums we have been to! Excellent exhibits, descriptive panels and beautifully explained by the staff. If you want to know about early Barcelona, from the 1200’s on, or are just curious about ship building and shipping, this is a must see place. Congratulations to the exhibit designers, curators and museologists for a job well done. Staff is very cooperative and friendly.An excellent museum, beautifully curated. A full size galley ship is inside and incredible in addition to many other exhibits. not crowd at all. Great information on the history of Spain and how the strong influence of the sea shaped Barcelona for over 1,000 years to this day. Nice canteen with a pleasant shady garden for a welcome rest.Great experience.

The Maritime Museum of Barcelona (Catalan: Museu Marítim de Barcelona, MMB) The Maritime Museum of Barcelona is a public facility dedicated to the conservation and diffusion of the cultural and cultural heritage of Catalonia.It is located in the building of Drassanes Reials de Barcelona, the royal arsenal of Barcelona, dedicated to shipbuilding between the thirteenth century & eighteenth century. The first mension of these arsenals date from 1243 in a document indicating the boundaries of the city of Barcelona where it mentions its shipyard. It shows the history of the navigation from the early days together with the history of the Spanish Navy since the Catholic Monarchs, in the 15th century, up to the present. It also hosts several navigation instruments, weapons, portolans and paintings. The museum was declared Museum of National Interest by the Government of Catalonia.

The Maritime Museum of Barcelona is a space for interpreting and sharing Catalan maritime culture in a way that is innovative, participative and in touch with society and the country through research, conservation and the protection of our heritage. It seeks to be a point of reference for Mediterranean maritime culture, open and accessible to society as a whole, an entity that works in cooperation with people and organizations. It strives for excellence in the management of heritage, the creation of knowledge and in education, with the mission of promoting social progress locally. It does all of this while focusing on the relationship between Catalonia, its people and the sea. This is what sets the Maritime Museum of Barcelona apart from other museums of its kind.

The Maritime Museum’s collections are extremely rich and varied. They include pieces ranging from a ship that still sails to a postal stamp, or from a steam engine to a 14^th-century manuscript. Of course, they also include everything you expect to find in a maritime museum: binnacles, anchors, model ships, navigational tools, etc. In other words, all sorts of documents and objects from the miniscule to the huge, from all different periods and made of all sorts of materials. For decades, the Museum has gathered examples of the maritime past, a heritage that reminds us of the lives of seafarers, the histories of ships and maritime activities in peacetime or war.

The archive: Its a public service that is open to all scholars & anyone interested in its collection it. Users may access the inventories & online catalogues or consult the documents in person at the Museum Consultation Space & obtain copies of documents.

Navigational instruments

Navigation is about moving from one place to another in the safest and fastest way possible. We need to know where we are, where we want to go and which path is best. But at sea, with no references other than the sky and the sea itself, the need to navigate drove the development of a series of techniques that combine maths, physics, astronomy, meteorology and any other possible resources. Using artificial references like latitude and longitude, sophisticated systems have been created to help us find our way. Humans have developed and built a range of instruments and mechanisms that have allowed them to measure the height of the sun and the stars (like the 14^th-century astrolabe or the sextant), find magnetic north (compasses, sometimes inside binnacles), measure time (chronometers), measure the speed of ships (chip logs), see far away (spyglasses), etc.  The combination of knowledge and use of these tools allowed for an understanding of the natural environment that has served navigation both on water and in the air. The Maritime Museum of Barcelona holds a rich collection of instruments and other artefacts related to the art of navigating and understanding the sea and the sky, applying human ingenuity to problems that once seemed impossible to solve.

Following are some important Navigation Instruments :

• 19TH-CENTURY OCTANT
• SPYGLASS
• ADKINS SEXTANT
• DIPTYCH SOLAR QUADRANT
• BRASS UNIVERSAL SOLAR QUADRANT
• ASTROLABE DISK
• CHRONOMETER MADE IN THE 19TH CENTURY BY JOHN POOLE
• BINNACLE FROM A COMPAÑÍA TRASMEDITERRÁNEA SHIP

Entrance to the Maritime Museum :

It is located inside Barcelona Royal Shipyard (Spanish: Atarazanas Reales de Barcelona) a shipyard and former military building of Gothic architecture placed at the Port Vell area of the Port of Barcelona. Construction started during the 13th century under the rule of Peter III of Aragon. The building is of Gothic style, its construction was carried out in a first stage between 1283 / 1328 and the second between 1328 / 1390. Subsequent reforms and extensions have been made, basically keeping the original structure. During excavations in it was discovered that in the late 16th century a new building was constructed on top of the old medieval dockyard, giving the building its current structure. This excavations also uncovered a Roman graveyard. The shipyard’s restoration was finished in early 2013. The Museum was reopened in 2014.

The National Maritime Museum, based in UK, is a site that deals with the preservation and showcasing of ships, astronomical observations, time, stars and many other unique items different from the ones that are routine in other museums. In simple words, the National Maritime Museum is dedicated to elaborate the relationship that exists between nature, mankind and its creations. The National Maritime Museum comprises of three different components – the Maritime galleries, the Royal Observatory and the Queen’s House which in totality make up the National Maritime Museum. Established in the 1930s, the National Maritime Museum has over the years grown to be one of the most important idea-setter on the subjects of marine engineering, ships and astronomy. The importance of the National Maritime Museum is that it serves the purpose for which it was established. It has great stores of data and examples that benefit the people visiting the museum for the purpose of understanding concepts previously unknown to them about ships and astronomy.

 My dear readers may kindly point out any incorrect information in my above writeup needing any corrections! I am truly indebted to Wikipedia & for the invaluable information on the subject !Happy Reading !