The inauguration of the Santiago Jiménez de Arnedo Museum of Natural Sciences was celebrated this Friday in the presence of the family of the long-awaited founder (who died on August 15, 2020 at the age of 78), local authorities, collaborators and Eudald Carbonell, co-director of … the Atapuerca excavations until 2023 and the Prince of Asturias award.
The mayor, Javier García, recalled that a few years ago, the Nuevo Cinema, the Tourism office, opened in this emblematic building from the 1950s.
He explained that the museum entirely occupies the second floor, with about 400 square meters. This represents double the space it had in the House of Culture. its second headquarters.
García highlighted the origin in 1975 as a traveling exhibition, with funds from Iberdrola and Santiago Jiménez, who donated to the city in 1995 more than 400 specimens from his collection of minerals, fossils and different material, installing the room in the Casa de Bobadilla as complement to the Footwear Museum. This will also open on the ground floor of the Nuevo Cinema. “Almost 30 years later, both meet again,” highlighted the mayor.
The Santiago Jiménez Museum of Natural Sciences is divided into four parts dedicated to Atapuerca, prehistory, mineralogy and paleontology, in this order. They are complemented by the projection room and the workshop classroom (on the ground floor). In total it collects more than 1,000 pieces.
To shape the exhibition structure, according to the 21st century, the National Museum of Natural Sciences, the Geominero, the National Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Human Evolution, the Atapuerca sites in Burgos, the Museum of Mineralogy of Paris, the Paleontological Center were visited. of Enciso and the Paleontological Interpretation Center of La Rioja of Igea.
The Councilor for Tourism Raúl Domínguez, responsible for this project, valued the work of the electricians, carpenters and tourism team, thanks to whom, with the support of experts, this space is materialized, in addition to the Association of Friends of the Museum and family.
After Eudald and Santi’s son intervened, those present attended the unveiling of a commemorative plaque and toured the facilities.
To end the day, in the afternoon an event took place at the Cervantes Theater with the president of La Rioja, Gonzalo Capellán, the mayor, Javier García, Eudald Carbonell and Joaquín Moratalla, paleontologist and composer of the ‘Réquiem pro Sancti’. There was also video screening.
