The City Council will inaugurate this Friday the Museum of the Sea, which exhibits one of the best collections in the country on fishing and navigation.

The new exhibition space, located in the bullring, pays tribute to the millenary relationship between man and the ocean. The funds are part of the collection gathered by Miguel López Mateo from Malaga throughout his life as a fisherman, diver and sailor.

Estepona will open next Friday a new exhibition space. It is the Museum of the Sea, located in the bullring, which pays tribute to the ancient relationship between man and the ocean. The center houses the Miguel López Mateo Collection, the result of a lifetime dedicated to preserving the memory of the trades, techniques and tools that have defined the seafaring culture of the Mediterranean.

The museum is born with a clear didactic, informative and emotional vocation: it will not only show visitors how people used to sail, but also why they did it. Each exhibit will tell a story of ingenuity, survival, exploration and tradition.

This new exhibition space will house the collection of Miguel López Mateo, fisherman, diver, sailor and collector from Malaga, which includes hundreds of carefully restored and classified pieces. Visitors will be able to find everything from astronomical navigation instruments to 19th century diving equipment, as well as models, gear, fishing gear and everyday objects from life on board.

Among the most outstanding elements are true jewels of naval history, such as a binnacle from 1876 with an original paper Wind Rose, one of the few in the world preserved in optimal conditions for academic study; a telegraph from the late 19th century similar to that of the Titanic and the only known example with inscriptions in Spanish, which makes it a unique object in international naval history; an 18th century graphometer signed by Claud Langlois, the last logbook of the ship ‘Joaquín Mumbrú’ before its sinking in 1917 by the German submarine US3 (direct testimony of merchant shipping during the First World War); and a Spanish nacelle runner, key to the definition of the knot as a unit of maritime speed, which represents a milestone in the evolution of modern navigation.

In addition, there are also sextants and astrolabes from the colonial era, used in Atlantic crossings in the 18th century, and a complete set of rigid scantlings and assisted diving suits, including manual air pumps from the 19th century.

On the other hand, the exhibition also includes interactive sections and educational contents adapted to schools, with special emphasis on traditional navigation, artisanal fishing and maritime trades that have already disappeared.

For the councilman attached to the area of Heritage, Daniel Garcia, the opening of the Museum of the Sea is one of the great cultural bets of Estepona in recent years. “We are not only inaugurating a museum, but we are publicly recognizing the value of a collective history that is part of our identity as a coastal town.”

The Museum of the Sea is conceived as an accessible, inclusive and multidisciplinary space, with activities for schoolchildren, researchers, tourists and families. Throughout the year, the museum will host workshops, conferences, temporary exhibitions and guided tours focused on the maritime history of the Andalusian coast.

The inauguration will take place this Friday at 7.30 pm. From that moment on, the museum can be visited during the usual opening hours of the museum space in the bullring: Tuesday to Saturday from 09:00 to 15:00 hours. Closed on Sundays, Mondays and holidays.

Miguel López Mateo

Miguel López Mateo, born in 1939 in the Malaga neighborhood of El Bulto, was a fisherman, diver, sailor and, above all, a passionate collector. Since his childhood, he began to collect objects related to the sea, guided by his fascination for nautical instruments and the oral memory of sailors.

The result is a living collection, testimony to an unwavering commitment to the maritime culture of southern Spain. Its legacy now becomes everyone’s heritage thanks to this museum.