Being on the islands when it rains can be boring, but not in Ibiza. Just venture inland or start visiting museums, galleries and archaeological sites to find out more about the history of this land. You can spend the time by interspersing cultural moments with culinary breaks.
Casa Colom – Dalt Vila
According to the historian and journalist Nito Verdera, Christopher Columbus would have been Ibizan! It sounds strange, but inside this house in Dalt Vila, originally from the fourteenth century and annexed to the chapel of Sant Ciriac, which belonged to an important family of the Middle Ages of Ibiza, La Colom, the documentation collected over the decades by Nito, as well as various objects and memorabilia from his private collection. Visiting is believing.
La Nave – Salinas
The Nave Salinas is an industrial exhibition space with a sea view that showcases quality works from the private collection of Lio Malca, a contemporary art collector. It was opened few years ago, and it has recently hosted an installation by Keith Haring and related workshops for children. Every year a new exhibition will take place here, with workshops and activities also for kids. Admission is free.
Museo de Etnografia – Santa Eularia
This small museum tells the historical origins of the island, displaying traditional jewels and costumes as well as agricultural tools and musical instruments. Interesting to know a little bit more of the history of this island (that it doesn’t begin with the opening of the Pacha đ )
Museu dâArt Contemporani dâEivissa – Dalt Vila
The Museu d’Art Contemporani d’Eivissa (MACE), in the Sant Joan bastion, is one of the most surprising and avant-garde spaces in the city. It occupies the former Weapons Hall built in 1727 according to the plans of the French military engineer Simon Poulet. The museum reopened in 2012, after expansion works that saw the capacity double thanks to a new all-glass building. The island has been elected as a meeting point for many international artists and it is in these spaces that their works find their place in permanent collections, as well as in temporary exhibitions together with local artists.
Puig des Molins and Museo ArqueolĂłgico de Ibiza y Formentera – Ibiza City
On the Hill of Windmills, near Dalt Vila, there are no longer as many mills as there were in the past, but one can still admire the archaeological excavations of the necropolis of Puig des Molins, which is considered the most important in the western Mediterranean, both for its wide typology of tombs and for its vast extension and state of conservation. The necropolis, like the city, was founded in the 7th century BC. by the Phoenicians, who used to bury their dead at a site near their village.
Next to the necropolis is the Museo ArqueolĂłgico de Ibiza y Formentera, an extension of the one of Dalt Vila, which houses some Phoenician and Punic remains and also the pantheon of the gods Tanit, Baal Hamon and Eshmun, all connected to love and fertility. The bust of the goddess Tanit is the most important and representative: she was the Carthaginian mother goddess to whom offering sacrifices to avoid adversity. Today she continues to be a symbol for artists and many believers in her positive influences.
So, for this cloudy days, these could be options…