Photo: Emilio J. Rodríguez Posada · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Museo Arqueológico de Estepona

Municipal archaeological museum in the Casa del Aljibe, with the Venus of Estepona and finds from prehistory to the Andalusi period; closed for refurbishment.

Temporarily closedFree admission

Website Directions

Temporarily closed. The museum is temporarily closed for refurbishment; the tourism website gives no reopening date.

About the museum

The museum occupies the Casa del Aljibe, an 18th-century building constructed over a cistern that belonged to a tower from the Muslim period. The town council acquired it in 1853 and used it as the town hall until 2011. A major refurbishment in 1944 gave it its present appearance. Today it houses the municipal archaeological collections, made up of pieces from private collections and materials from archaeological interventions over recent decades.

The route is organised into four rooms. The first deals with the first settlers, the Phoenician navigators and the Roman conquest, with the Venus of Estepona, a female figurine some 5,000 years old, and Phoenician and Punic pieces from the El Torreón site. The second shows the splendour of the Roman Empire, with material from coastal villas and Mediterranean shipwrecks. The third covers the period from the Byzantine Empire to the Umayyad caliphate, with grave goods from the Arroyo Vaquero necropolis and finds from the Castillo del Nicio and the historic centre. The fourth is devoted to Istibuna, the Andalusi medina that gave rise to Estepona.

The central courtyard is used for temporary exhibitions and to provide information about the other museums and monuments of the town.

Highlights

Venus of Estepona, a female figurine some 5,000 years old
Phoenician and Punic pieces from the El Torreón site
Materials from Roman villas and Mediterranean shipwrecks
Grave goods from the Arroyo Vaquero necropolis
Room on Istibuna, the Andalusi medina
Muslim-period cistern beneath the building

Permanent exhibition

Colección arqueológica permanente – Four chronological rooms: the first settlers, Phoenicians and Romans, the transition from the Byzantine Empire to the Umayyad caliphate, and the Andalusi medina of Istibuna.