We have had a few cold, grey days. The first we have seen since we were living in Galicia.

We decided it was a good time to explore the Museo de Bellas Artes de Castellón. The Museo is a contemporary museum housing local art, artifacts, ceramics & sculpture.

There is also a Biblioteca that houses historic books and documents specializing in art, ceramics, the history of art and ethnology and art in the province of Castellon. Entry is free which is amazing.

It was larger than we thought it would be so we only wandered around 2 floors and will return another day to see the ceramics and archaeology floors.

The first floor we explored seemed to be dedicated to religious paintings.

The other floor we spent time in had a lot of paintings depicting life in Spain from the past five hundred years. So for that alone, it was quite insightful to view paintings of everyday life from the past. There were some amazing paintings

In particular, the very large painting by Gabriel Puig Roda called “L’expulsió dels Moriscos”

( “The expulsion of the Moriscos” the Moors)

The other large painting depicts King Jaime entering Valencia in 1238

James I of Aragon (Jaime el Conquistador, Rey Don Jaime) is revered here in Spain as he united the Kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre and fought the Moors to reclaim both Mallorca and Valencia. He was then the King of Aragon, King of Majorca and Valencia and Count of Barcelona. You can find a street, park or plaza named after him everywhere you go.