Museo Aeronautico Municipal

A museum? In LA?

Opposite the military base on Avenida de la Libertad, the main street in Los Alcazares, you can find the Museo Aeronautico Municipal. I have passed it on my way to the boulevard or back many times but never found it open for visitors. Today I found a new sign stating the museo to be open Monday to Friday between 4 pm and 9 pm, that’s anglo-American for between 16:00 and 21:00. So I went back later to have a look inside.

The museo is located in a row of townhouses and fronted by large windows and the door already welcoming ajar. inviting visitors to enter.

The museo’s exhibition is mainly inside and consists of a number of wall-mounted displays giving an overview of the history of the seaplane base from its founding about a century ago and through the following decades. There are also some display cabinets with artifacts related to the airplanes and to one of the former pilots. One wall sports a wooden propellor as used on the seaplanes in the early days of the base and aviation in general.

Well inside and having looked around, Salvador, the custodian of the museo, joined me and explained each and every exhibit to me. Unfortunately, he did so in Spanish which is not my strong language. But he certainly seemed very knowledgeable and knew a lot about the aeronautico base and its history. Salvador encouraged me to take all the photos I wanted but to avoid pointing the lens toward the military base across the street, as it still is an active military base and they might take offense.

Some of the displays on the wall feature a summary in English, while most do not. This seems like something that could easily be improved upon and would raise the level of understanding for non-Spanish speakers such as me. I hope the good folks at Murcia (or Los Alacazares) read this and will make the effort.

There’s also a Marquette display that shows the base in its early days to scale, including model planes showing the takeoff and landing installation that involves getting the planes from the Mar Menor back onto dry land again. I believe another display is in the making and do hope to see it completed on my next visit.

As a non-resident of LA, especially the aerial photos of early LA provide nice views of how LA came about and you may even recognize La Encarnación on a few of them.

Once outside, you’ll find a couple of anti-aircraft guns on display, prominently flanking the gate. On the wall around the property are murals displaying early aeronautical scenes and portraits of former base commanders.
There’s also a large model of a seaplane as was used on the base. But it is a flat model and does not really honor the museo. That said, a real veteran plane would be hard to place there and it would not be in a suitable environment for such a rare antique.

Some pictures inside:



And outside:

The museo website:
I checked the website (see link below) for the museo at Murcia Turistica but it seems quite outdated. The opening days and hours do not match the real opening hours, and the photographs seem to have been taken before a renovation and differ substantially from what it looks like today.

Summary:
I do like municipalities preserving local history and making it accessible to the public. In this, the museo did great, there was no entry fee and plenty to look at. It is however sad that the majority of the descriptions are in Spanish only as this could easily be improved on. I do have some ideas on how to accomplish that without Murcia Turistica breaking the bank.
Also, I was silently hoping to see an actual seaplane behind the building… But it turned out to be only a model – the scale models on display inside and the Marquette of the seaplane base have to do.
All in all an enjoyable visit that I encourage any of our residents to take in order to get an impression about the origin of Los Alcazares.

Address:
Avenida de la Libertad 37
30710 Los Alcázares
Murcia
Spain

Sources:

Paul, 2022-11

 

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