Museu Etnogràfic Vallhonrat

Ethnographic museum in Rubí with six rooms of ethnography, archaeology, furniture, weapons, a cellar and the work of Pons Cirac; free admission.

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About the museum

The Museu Etnogràfic Vallhonrat in Rubí was born in the mid-20th century from the collecting passion of Miquel Vallhonrat i Brau, which began with pieces from the family dating back to the early 18th century and grew as he gathered objects that clients and neighbours brought him or that he went to look for himself. His son Pere (1941–2022) was the museum's curator, and today his daughters, Núria and Anna, continue their grandfather's work.

The building stands on the estate where the Vallhonrat family of carpenters lived and worked from the mid-18th century; from outside, a brick water tower stands out and can be seen from several points in the village. Three ancient olive trees were planted in the courtyard, and a new space of about 800 m² was built, with two exhibition rooms and basements: the Auditori Vallhonrat, completed in 2009 for temporary exhibitions and cultural events.

In December 2017 the Fundació Vallhonrat was set up to conserve, disseminate and expand the ethnographic collection, and in 2019 the Generalitat de Catalunya awarded it the Creu de Sant Jordi. Today the museum has six rooms: inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries, cellar, furniture, archaeology, weapons and the room dedicated to the glass artist Pons Cirac.

Highlights

Hall of inventions from the 19th and 20th centuries, with devices made in Rubí and a comic collection
Cellar with twenty chestnut and oak barrels from the Vallhonrat masia
Weapons room with pieces from the Carlist Wars and 18th-century Ripoll pistols
Archaeological room with nearly a thousand pieces of very diverse origin
Pons Cirac room with carved glass

Permanent exhibitions

Sala Arqueológica – The room with the most pieces in the museum, nearly a thousand: household objects, fossils over 540 million years old, African sculpture, Japanese ivory figures and pre-Columbian pieces.
Sala de Armas – Weapons used in the Carlist Wars, in Cuba and the Philippines or at the Battle of the Ebro, wheel-lock pistols and Ripoll pistols, blunderbusses and an original Japanese armour from the 16th–17th centuries.
Sala del Celler – Former cellar of the Vallhonrat masia with twenty barrels, wine-making utensils, tools of sixteen trades and a collection of masia locks.

Operated by: Fundació Vallhonrat