Our Spanish school in the Basque museum
The Instituto Hemingway organizes free activities for its students everyday after class. The most important goal of these activities is to encourage students to know each other better but also to learn more of the city culture and put information gained in lessons into practice outside of school. On 23 August we went to the Basque Museum in the heart of the old town of Bilbao. The building, built in the 17th century, was once a Jesuit congregational parish. The museum opened in 1921.
In this museum you can see the different aspects that shaped the life
and daily work of the Basque people. You can visit rooms with displays on the sea and fishing, sheep farming, trades and traditional handicrafts or pottery and weaving. Remarkable is the scale model of Bizkaia. The museum has 4 floors, each floor shows something different.
The ground level of the Museum consists of an inner courtyard. You can find prehistoric and medieval sculptures here.
On the first floor you can see the ethnography. The Basque people were famous whale hunters for centuries, without the aid of any modern technology.
On the second floor you can see the traditional household goods, toys, furniture and clothing of the Basque people.
On the third floor you can see a massive cartographical model of Bilbao from 1962-1970.
It´s a very nice museum, and you will learn a lot about the way Basque people have lived, and the typical things they used, for example to make clothes. It´s really impressive to see.
This activity will be arranged more, so take a look at the free activity program on the website, when the next time will be. It´s really worth it!