Chris Pearrow
Curious museum in the Mining School
The Museo Histórico-Minero Don Felipe de Borbón y Grecia is a small and curious museum hidden within Madrid’s Mining Engineering School (Escuela Superior de Ingenieros de Minas de Madrid). Since the museum is located within a college, it’s free and open to the public during regular hours but honestly the best time to visit it is during the monthly gemstones and fossils market which takes place in the courtyard of the school. It’s probably not something you should go out of your way to visit on your own, but making a combined visit to the gemstones market and Museo Geominero located right next door isn’t a bad plan for a Sunday morning.
As you can imagine, the museum has all kinds of gems, fossils, minerals, stones, geodes, animal bones, and other curiosities, but really I liked it because of the space itself. It’s located in a historic library complete with vaulted ceilings, red velvet display cases, wrought-iron balconies, and ornate woodwork. Again, probably not on the must-see list of Madrid museums (especially if you’re only in Madrid for a few days), but it’s an interesting place to check out if you’re looking for something a little different.
Read more
![](https://images.mnstatic.com/63/0a/630ab59408857bece53338155b268f60.jpg?quality=75&format=png&fit=crop&width=65&height=65&aspect_ratio=65%3A65)
![](https://images.mnstatic.com/b4/a2/b4a21af978f39cda9c81fbdc91820cd8.jpg?quality=75&format=png&fit=crop&width=65&height=65&aspect_ratio=65%3A65)
![](https://images.mnstatic.com/5d/73/5d7349fcf5dfda03e09b064a0af4cb44.jpg?quality=75&format=png&fit=crop&width=65&height=65&aspect_ratio=65%3A65)