Museo de la Paz de Guernica

Museo de la Paz de Guernica (Gernika Peace Museum) is a municipal museum in the Basque town of Guernica (Gernika-Lumo), dedicated to the 1937 bombing of the city and to a wider reflection on peace and human rights.

What is this museum and why does it carry this name?

The museum opened on 7 April 1998 as Museo Gernika, originally focused on the town's history and the devastating air raid it suffered during the Spanish Civil War. In 2003, following a redesign of its exhibition concept, it was relaunched as a Peace Museum — the first of its kind in the Basque Country and in Spain. From that point on, the displays stopped being purely local history and started addressing the culture of peace and human rights as universal themes.

What does the permanent exhibition show?

The exhibition follows two threads that constantly intersect: the history of Gernika and the question of what peace actually means. Its centrepiece is 26 April 1937, the day bombs and fire reduced the town to rubble; interactive rooms recreate that day through audiovisual material built largely from the accounts of survivors who lived through it. The museum also has two screening rooms, a conference room and a documentation centre on the bombing, where visitors can access source material on the subject.

The exhibition poses direct questions to visitors: what is peace, what legacy did the bombing of Gernika leave behind, how do survivors themselves describe what happened, and what is the state of human rights around the world today. This turns the visit into something more than a history lesson — it becomes an invitation to think about the present.

What themed memory routes does the museum offer?

Beyond the permanent exhibition, Museo de la Paz de Guernica offers seven memory routes that let visitors explore specific aspects of the town's story in more depth: air-raid shelters, the reconstruction of Gernika after the bombing, monuments and sites connected to the victims, the link between Pablo Picasso's painting and the town's tragedy, the Gernika cemetery, the role of women in the town's history, and the work of the war correspondents who reported the bombing to the world. Each route can work as a standalone theme, chosen according to a visitor's own interests.

Who is the museum for, and how much time should a visit take?

The museum attracts visitors interested in 20th-century history as well as school groups and people involved in peace and human-rights education. The interactive format and survivor testimonies make it accessible to audiences of different ages, though given its subject — the bombing of a civilian population — it is not a light visit. It is worth setting aside at least an hour for the permanent exhibition, and longer if you plan to follow one of the memory routes through the town itself.

Frequently asked questions

Is Museo de la Paz de Guernica the same institution as the former Museo Gernika? Yes, it is the same museum. It opened in 1998 as Museo Gernika and was renamed and reoriented toward peace themes in 2003, after a change in its exhibition concept.

What does the permanent exhibition cover? It combines the history of the 26 April 1937 bombing of Gernika with a broader reflection on peace and human rights, drawing heavily on the testimony of survivors.

Can visitors learn about Picasso's painting "Guernica" at the museum? Yes — one of the museum's seven memory routes is specifically dedicated to the connection between Pablo Picasso's work and the town's tragedy.

Is it worth combining the museum with other stops in Gernika? Yes. The museum's memory routes lead to other sites around town, such as the air-raid shelters and the cemetery, allowing visitors to extend their trip beyond the permanent exhibition itself.