Vilamuseu, Villajoyosa

Vilamuseu, the Municipal Museum of Villajoyosa, is located on the site of the former Álvaro Esquerdo Public School, an eclectic style building of which the façade has been preserved. It was previously housed in the Casa de la Cultura de Villajoyosa, in Barranquet Street, in the basement of which it was created in December 1973 by José Payá Nicolau with the help of a group of collaborators. The initial collection was mainly made up of donations of archaeological, ethnographic, palaeontological and mineral objects, mostly from Villajoyosa.

It was recognised as a permanent museum collection under the name of Municipal Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography by the Generalitat Valenciana on 4th April 1995, with the incorporation of the current director. It was recognised as a Museum on 9th September 1996.

In 2010 the facilities were closed to the public in order to carry out cataloguing and packaging work in preparation for the move to the new headquarters. The new museum, with the name Vilamuseu, Municipal Museum of Villajoyosa, opened its doors to the public in November 2016. It is a large facility of a total of 4500 m² built mainly with funds from the Plan Confianza of the Generalitat Valenciana.

Vilamuseu is, in addition to being the town's new museum, the headquarters of the Villajoyosa municipal network of museums and monuments. The building, museography and public services of the museum have been designed according to the principles of universal design, taking into account physical, organic, sensory and mental disabilities.

The museum has an exceptional collection of local collections. Among the major landmarks are Phoenician, Punic and Greek objects from the necropolis of Poble Nou and Casetes, including Phoenician-Punic gold jewellery, the Etruscan bronze strainer, the Attic vases with black figures, the collection of Egyptian amulets and the Egyptian New Year's canteen; The collection of Iberian ceramics painted in a style typical of Villajoyosa, including the so-called Vaso del umbral del más allá, an exceptional piece in the Iberian world, whose decoration narrates the Iberian concept of the journey of the soul to the afterlife. II A.D. or the figurative mosaics of the monumental villa of Xauxelles; the cargo of the shipwreck of the wreck of the wreck of the city.; the cargo of the Roman Bou-Ferrer shipwreck, the largest ancient vessel currently being excavated in the Mediterranean, declared an asset of cultural interest, including the large lead ingots with the inscription IMP AVG GER, probably referring to the emperor Nero; or the materials from the farmhouses, rural mosque and Islamic cemetery of l'Armiserà; as well as the important collection of 19th and 20th century collections.

Vilamuseu also manages the Casa Museo la Barbera dels Aragonés, with an interesting collection of Romantic period furniture perfectly contextualized in the original spaces of the house, including clothing from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century.