Ethnographic Museum of Grandas de Salime

Latitude: 43.2175713 Length: -6.8742766
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The Ethnographic Museum of Grandas de Salime is one of the most unique museums in Spain. Its distinction lies in its pioneering role in rescuing objects and tools from rural life for public display—objects and tools that were often overlooked in museum collections and held no interest for collectors. The museum occupies the former Rectory of Grandas , which was renovated for this purpose, preserving its traditional architecture. This spacious building evokes a sense of nostalgia for things many remember, while simultaneously inspiring wonder in younger generations who have little understanding of how people managed in rural life. The museum also houses the staff responsible for analyzing and protecting heritage, who come to take notes. The idea of ​​José Mª Naveiras Escanlar, known as " Pepe El Ferreiro" , has been well received by everyone since he embarked on this journey through time, back in 1984. He is a lover of his land who has been collecting and studying numerous examples of folk crafts for more than thirty years.

What does the Grandas Museum treasure?

Those with long memories, scholars, and laypeople alike find enjoyment in this vast array of artifacts that have become enduring relics of another time. It is no wonder that it is one of the most visited museums in Asturias, attracting some 20.000 visitors annually. It houses and displays over 3.000 traditional instruments of all kinds , and its collection grows every year, or rather every day, with continuous contributions from individuals and public institutions, transforming it into a living organism, its skeleton, joints, muscles, and vital organs constantly evolving. Its location on the border between Galicia and Asturias further enriches this enduring legacy. From both sides, artifacts arrive to contribute to the collective memory of a large, geographically complex, and culturally rich region.

Everything is distributed throughout the different rooms of the house: kitchen, tool shed, distillery, bedroom, stables, and outbuildings such as the granary and bread store . Inanimate objects take on a certain life and meaning when grouped by themes, activities, or specific places within the rural habitat and the traditional house. On the first floor, we find the "lareira," or hearth , a common place for the limited leisure time available to country folk. Along with the household items, the "lareira" features benches with an attached table; the oven with its utensils; a kneading trough; the conqueiro, espeteira, or basal, with shelves holding the tableware, mostly made of wood; and the "trobo da colada," a hollowed-out chestnut log placed on the "dala" or "coladoiro," used for washing clothes by boiling ash and passing it over the clothes inside the trobo.

In the weaving room , used for the textile industry, we discovered the tools for working with wool and linen, as well as two low-warp looms. From this room, we moved to the hall , which served as a communal bedroom and dining room for festive occasions that brought together several neighbors. The simple furnishings included two iron beds, a table, chairs, stools, a washbasin, a chest for clothes, oil lamps, photographs of ancestors, and paintings of religious images.

On the staircase leading to the ground floor, we come across two important collections : one of yokes and another of whetstones for sharpening scythes. At the bottom of the stairs, on the ground floor, a small shoemaking workshop has been set up with the tools of two local shoemakers. To the left, we enter a wine cellar with the authentic aroma of winemaking tradition. Straight ahead, the door opens into the multipurpose room, which has the forge and carpentry workshop to the left , and at the far right, an entire room dedicated to wooden footwear. Instruments of folk medicine, weights and measures, hunting, fishing, and beekeeping tools are also displayed in this same room.

Other works of the museum

The museum carries out research on crops and crafts that it intends to recover, with live demonstrations of the work of the turner, blacksmith, clog maker, basket maker, loom crafts, and many other activities.

Strolling through this museum is to participate, refresh the memory for some and imagine what was never known to others. When we focus our attention on something in particular, we gradually assimilate its function, based on common sense or explanations; we understand then that everything was already invented, however rustic the ingenuities of another time may be. The constant depopulation of the field, the change in the forms of work and the means of production propitiated the almost disappearance of these instruments that we see and that our eyes, thanks to the museum, manage to get out of oblivion for a long time.

The treasure chest of memories safeguards a small portion of generational emotion, and could well serve as a small-scale analogy for this immense rural treasure that is the museum. Old photographs initially illustrate habits, ways of life, family relationships, and economies, but if we surround them with the materials and elements that made the lives of our ancestors possible, the portrait ceases to be a distant entity and acquires real and contemporary meaning. Observing the past in Grandas de Salime enriches the present of our visit and archives in our experience a history that belongs to us.

Hours of the Grandas de Salime Ethnographic Museum

WINTER (January - April and October - December)
· Tuesday to Friday: from 11:00 a.m. to 14:00 p.m. and from 16:00 p.m. to 18:30 p.m.
· Saturdays: from 11:00 a.m. to 14:30 p.m. and 16:00 p.m. to 18:30 p.m.
· Sundays and holidays: from 11:00 a.m. to 15:00 p.m.

SUMMER (May - September)
· Tuesday to Saturday: from 11:00 a.m. to 14:30 p.m. and 16:00 p.m. to 20:00 p.m.
· Sundays and holidays: from 11:00 a.m. to 15:00 p.m.

EASTER
· Thursday to Saturday: 11:00 a.m. to 14:30 p.m. and 16:00 p.m. to 19:30 p.m.
Sunday: 11:00 a.m. to 15:00 p.m.

CLOSED
· Every Monday of the year.
· Sundays and holidays late.
· January 1 and 6.
December 24, 25 and 31.

Source: Ethnographic Museum of Grandas de Salime.