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Museo Naval de Ferrol

Museo Naval de Ferrol

This museum showcases the rich naval history with ship models, artillery, and historical nautical instruments, offering a unique glimpse into maritime heritage.

The Ferrol Naval Museum was inaugurated on 5 March 1986. Located inside the Naval base of Ferrol, in the old Prisoners Barracks known as San Campio and projected in 1765, it shows the link between the Navy and the city since 1726 when Patiño chose the Ferrol estuary and the village of La Graña to build the arsenal of the Navy in the north coast. In 1749 work began on the Esteiro shipyard and in 1750 on the Ferrol arsenal. Meanwhile, the La Graña shipyard continued to function as such until the completion of the works, which, after several projects and modifications, were finally finished in 1770. Among the models preserved in its rooms, the 34-gun frigate Santa María Magdalena, launched in 1773 in Ferrol, stands out. A strong storm caused it to sink in the Vivero estuary, together with the brig Palomo. More than 500 men lost their lives in the shipwreck. Some parts of the hull and numerous objects, nautical instruments and weapons recovered from the wreck are now on display in the museum. Other models of great interest are the Galatea school ship and the San Carlos Real de España, as well as a large collection of models of fishing and coastal vessels. The museum has more than one hundred pieces of artillery. In the Shooting room, all the elements that made up a ship's firing control from the second third of the 20th century are on display. Also on display are nautical instruments used by the navigator on his voyages, from the scandals and the nacelle slide to the GPS. Among the cartography, the Atlas de Tofiño and the collection of copper plates from the Instituto Hidrográfico, from the 18th and 19th centuries, deserve special attention. One of the rooms is dedicated to the Navy's School of Electronics and Transmissions (ETEA), with historical pieces from this centre located at the Río naval base, in the nearby Vigo estuary.