THE BUILDING AND ITS SURROUNDINGS

The Museum has been conceived as a modern institution with a repertoire of areas and services to fulfill the different tasks that this sort of centres are assigned for: acquisition, conservation, research, and exhibiting.

The main building is intended for the permanent collection rooms and visitors are suggested an explanatory tour adapted to the architectonic scenery: one way circulation around the central courtyard. This tour goes along the three floors with nine thematic rooms. Pieces are displayed following a connecting thread, and with a strongly educational purpose: to offer a chronological and cultural view of the evolution of human settlements in the region around Jerez and particularly in its township area from Paleolithic to the beginning of Modern Age.

The most significant archaeological materials are shown and interpreted with the help of abundant and detailed graphic information (texts with different letterings, photographs, drawings, chronological tables...), models and so on.

Thus, every historical period is distinguished by a different colour that appears in the inside fittings of the showcases as well as in the explanatory boards. Besides each period is identified with an icon, based on one of its most relevant pieces exhibited.

But the Museum is not just the permanent collection, though it is the only side known to the visitors. It has a number of departments and sections in which different important services are rendered.

Audiovisual Projection Room. It can hold 40 persons and offers a permanent projection programme during the museum opening hours. Visitors who wish it so can request for a specific audiovisual at the time of appointing their visit.

"Julián Cuadra" Room. It is an ample detached hall for lectures, concerts, scientific meetings, etc. with a capacity of two hundred people. Its exhibiting equipment (lights, security system, public address system...) makes possible its use for temporary and travelling exhibitions.

This hall is entered from the inside of the Museum through the "Manuel Esteve" courtyard which serves the purpose of space for open-air activities and rest area.

In this sense, both the hall and the courtyard are the scene for a yearly schedule of activities organized by the Museum and the Municipal Department of Culture as well as other institutions and civic groups.

Library. Included in the local library network and with over two thousand books in monographs and periodical publications. It is specialized in Archaeology, Museology and Restoration. Its reading-room has space for eighteen people.

Department of Education and Cultural Action. Just recently started, in its classrooms and workshops visitors are offered the possibility of carrying out different works. It is also in charge of programming the didactic activities for children according to their school levels and attending the different civic groups as well as presenting in an entertaining way the Museum and its contents.

Department of Restoration. Its technical equipment and personnel are qualified to cope successfully with any problem in the restoration and conservation of the pieces to be exhibited as well as those in storage. Its work is not limited to the Museum Laboratory, the department carries out also on-site consolidation and restoration treatments and elaborates diagnostic reports about the conditions of the Historical and Artistic Legacy ot the town.

Department of Photographic Documentation. The Museum facilities include also a darkroom. Photographic records of all the pieces in the Museum as well as all the activities carried out are kept in its archives. Graphic reproductions of any object can be requested, on payment of the corresponding fees.

Department of Research. It includes the Municipal Archaeology Service and it has an advisory and supervising function in archaeological matters. It is also in charge of the inventory, cataloguing and study of the sites and the archaeological materials as well as the publication of its results either for popularizing or scientific purposes, in conferences, congresses, lectures, specialized journals and so on... All its activities are included in the archaeological projects scheduled for the township of Jerez.

Other sections of the Museum are: stores, 220 m² large and capable of enlargement, which make the researchers´ work easier and enable the permanent monitoring of the funds of the Museum; The Information Desk and the Keeper´s Office, in charge of the reception of visitors and the control of the public access zones, as well as the sale of publications, reproductions, slides and so on. And finally the Administration and Direction Area.

All these departments have one common aim: to study the Historical Legacy of Jerez in order to bring it closer to the public.

Museo Arqueológico Municipal de Jerez
Plaza del Mercado, s/n
Tlfnos: (34) (56) 14.95.60 - 14.95.61 - Tlfax: (34) (56) 32.29.75
11408 - Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz)
Spain

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