This museum is a reality today, due to the investigation, tenacity and compilation of material by the Friars:

- Brother Jerónimo Coste (1930-1955)

- Brother Mauricio Arnáiz (1957-1959)

- Brohter Rufino Sagredo (1956-1990)

And the patience, tenacity and fine work of Brother Francisco Aguilera Pallarés, who, with the collaboration of D. Antonio Fortes Segura, classified, distributed, ordered, and presented the material in a authoritative way, placing it into its corresponding geological age.

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Almería is located at the shore of the Mediterranean sea. It is a cosmopolitan city. Our mild climate attracts lots of people from all over the world, some to spend their holiday here and others come to live here permanently. The people from Almería are kind people, respectful of other cultures, which makes good the phrase: "in Almería you will never be a stranger".

The city offers a great variety of attractions for visitors. Apart from an excellent beach, there are a lot of monuments to be visited in the old town. The Alcazaba, Moorish castle expanding over 35,000 sq. metres, deserves our special attention. >The cathedral built in the XVI century, the sanctuary of Santo Domingo, the churches of Santiago and San Pedro, plaza de la Constitucion are also places that must be visited. Calle de Las Tiendas, ancient Arab market, still has shops more than 100 years old. Typical bars offer excellent food and "tapas" at very cheap prices.

In modern areas of the city it is worth visiting the Rambla and Paseo Maritimo. The new sport grounds, built for the XV Mediterranean Games, have brought Almería into the limelight of this kind of facilities. The Villa Mediterranea of El Toyo is bound to be the main tourist resort in the city.

Recommendations

• Almería offers accommodation in excellent hotels, from luxury hotels to lodgings for people with less purchasing power. At the height of the season it is not recommendable to come without a reservation for, most probably, you will not find anywhere to stay.
• Our local fiesta "Feria de Almería" takes place during the last week of August and it lasts for 10 days. It offers a fiesta in the afternoon, which takes place downtown, with lots of stalls of drinks and food. At night the fiesta moves to a dedicated site with stalls and attractions of all kinds until daybreak. It is convenient to follow the safety regulations set by local authorities in booklets which are available for free.
• Winter months are also good to come, in fact, winter tourism is on the increase every year. The Holly Week (Easter) attracts lost of visitors and to a lesser extent, Carnival.

The province of Almería is very diverse, contrary to what some may think, it is not all a dry hot desert, but here we can find fresh places of high rainfall, with forests, rivers and lakes; places covered by snow most of the year. On the other hand you can see dream-like beaches that allow swimming throughout the year. We also have the only desert in Europe: the desert of Tabernas. All within a little distance from each other, so in few kilometres you can go from the heat of the desert to a cold place where you have to wear a coat.
All that results in a very rich variety of landscapes that makes our province one of the places of greatest biodiversity in Europe.
Inland tourism is increasingly gaining ground to the traditional coastal resorts like Mojacar, Roquetas de mar, Almerimar, etc. For our visitors are increasingly demanding a different kind of holiday not just sun and beach.

Recommendations

• For those who come here looking for sun and beach, the coast is the right place to visit. The best time to come are the months of May, June, September and October; in that way they will avoid the overcrowded hot months of the high season when prices are on the high.

• A lot of visitors, mainly from central and north Europe, come here in winter. In the coast, the coldest temperatures rarely go under 10º C in winter, and maximum temperatures are around 20º C.

• For inland tourism, it will depend on the place that they choose, the best time to come, for it could be very different from one place to another.

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