Gernika Peace Museum

The history of a people turned into a world icon of peace. The Gernika Peace Museum invites us to remember, reflect and forgive. Will you join us?

“Give up forgetting, give up revenge.” This is how the Gernika Peace Museum presents its effort to promote peace in all its aspects and forms. Taking the history of the Basque town of Gernika as its main tool, this museum tries to educate and to make the visitor aware of the basic ideas of the culture of peace. The Gernika Peace Museum not only tries to activate in the visitor actions of reflection, it also tries to bring the visitor closer to the history of the bombing of Gernika, the Civil War and the exile, 3 dramatic events that are part of the history of the Basque people.

Gernika Peace Museum

History of Gernika: The town of Gernika was founded on April 28, 1366 as a strategic point. The crossroads from Bermeo to Durango and from Bilbao to Lekeitio together with the port of Mundaka made Gernika a propitious place to found a town where trade would have a perfect outlet by land and sea. In 1882 Gernika joined Lumo, giving birth to Gernika-Lumo and leaving behind years of constant clashes over the geographical boundaries of the two municipalities. After the annexation, the town lived a period of very important industrial development that increased the population from 4,500 inhabitants to 6,000 in 1936.

Tree of Gernika

During the Spanish Civil War, the town suffered the destruction of more than 75% of its buildings. This event, which took place on April 26, 1937, is now known as the bombing of Guernica. The German Condor Legion with the help of the Italian air forces, acting under the orders of the pro-Franco army, bombed and strafed the town for more than 4 hours, leaving behind columns of smoke and devastation. Curiously, neither the Gernika arms factory, nor the meeting house, nor the Gernika tree were damaged.

Pablo Picasso’s Guernica: Pablo Picasso’s Guernica was commissioned by the then Director General of Fine Arts, Josep Renau, who, obeying the demand of the Government of the Spanish Republic, asked Picasso to create the Guernica for the International Exhibition of Paris that took place in 1937. A symbol of the suffering of a people and a representation of peace throughout the world.

Pablo Picasso’s life-size Gernica in Guernica

“Laint made for decorating rooms. It is an offensive and defensive instrument of war against the enemy. .” (Pablo Picasso)

Permanent collection: The museum’s permanent exhibition revolves around 3 points that help us to assimilate peace as much more than the end of armed conflicts.

Mural of the Gernika Peace Museum

• What is Peace? This section covers great and small thinkers and their views on the concept of peace.
• What happened in Gernika in a time of absence of peace? The history of the town of Gernika, the bombing it suffered during the Civil War and the exemplary lesson of peace of the survivors of that terrible event help us to understand in an interactive way the absence of peace in Gernika.
• What is currently happening with Peace in the world? Taking human rights and the Basque conflict as a reference, the Gernika Peace Museum invites us to reflect.

Services: The Gernika Peace Museum has multiple services of interest for its visitors among all of them we highlight:

-Activities around the theme of the museum.

-A 100% accessible building for all types of people.

-Children’s area.

-Chairs distributed throughout the museum to make the visit more enjoyable.

-Free wifi access throughout the museum.

Free Wifi in the Peace Museum of Gernika

Location: The Gernika Peace Museum is located in the urban center of Gernika-Lumo surrounded by one of the most important natural areas of Bizkaia, Urdaibai.

History of the Gernika Peace Museum: The Gernika Peace Museum was inaugurated on April 7, 1998 under the name of the Gernika Museum. After a large museographic project carried out between 1999 and 2002, the Gernika Museum was renamed the Gernika Peace Museum, thus becoming the first museum dedicated to peace in the whole peninsula.

Panoramic view of the Peace Museum of Gernika

The Gernika Peace Museum is a member of the international network of Museums for Peace, the International Council of Museums and many other national and international networks.

Visits: The Gernika Peace Museum offers the possibility of 3 types of visits, free visit, guided visit and combined visit.

Guided tours are only for groups of a maximum of 25 people and cost €28 per group.

Given the possibility of doing any of the 3, we recommend a combined visit to the museum and the Spanish Civil War shelter in the town of Gernika.

Civil War Shelter in Gernika

The estimated duration of the visit to the Gernika Peace Museum is 60 minutes.

TurismoVasco Tiketa” Accreditation: The commitment of the Gernika Peace Museum to try to educate and educate visitors in the culture of peace has great significance for the Basque people, a people that has suffered too much and deserves an effort by all to achieve this goal. It is for all these reasons that the Gernika Peace Museum has obtained our exclusive “TurismoVasco Tiketa” accreditation. “Give up forgetting, give up revenge.”

Accreditation “TurismoVasco Tiketa” at the Gernika Peace Museum

Documentation Center: The museum has inside it the documentation center on the bombing of Gernika, created in 1997 on the initiative of the City Council of this same town. Anyone interested in researching the bombing of Gernika, the Civil War or the exile experienced can use it as a tool for their project.

Temporary collection: The Gernika Peace Museum has a floor dedicated exclusively to temporary exhibitions. Most of the exhibitions that visit this museum have a certain link with the theme of the museum.

Temporary exhibition of the Peace Museum of Gernika

New technologies: The museum makes use of new technologies to make the visit more enjoyable and interesting. This is evidenced by the audiovisual reproductions that we find throughout the 3 floors of the museum and the reproduction of the house of Begoña on the day of the bombing of Guernica.

Entrance to Begoña’s house in the Gernika Peace Museum

Undoubtedly the most frequently asked questions by visitors are about “Gernika” and “what to see around Gernika”.

Does the Gernika Peace Museum exhibit Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica”?

The real “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso has been in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía since 1992. In the Peace Museum of Gernika we will find a replica of the painting as well as the ceramic reproduction that we can find near the park of the peoples of Europe near the health center of Gernika-Lumo.

Replica of Pablo Picasso’s Gernica at the Gernika Peace Museum

What can I visit in Gernika and/or Urdaibai?

• Gernika Peace Museum
• Euskal Herria Museum
• Gernika Meeting House
• Caves of Santimamiñe
• Basondo
• Bird center of Urdaibai
• Bermeo Fisherman’s Museum
• Madariaga Tower in Busturia
• Aita Guria in Bermeo
• Arteaga Castle

And a long etcetera that we will be happy to mention in case you are interested, leave a comment in this article and we will answer you as soon as possible.

As you can see the Peace Museum of Gernika is full of history waiting for your visit. To understand a little better the culture and tradition of this town we leave a video of the Basque public television: