Museo Torre Font Bona – Banyeres de Mariola, Spain - Atlas Obscura
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Museo Torre Font Bona

Banyeres de Mariola, Spain

An archaeological museum squeezed into a narrow 15th-century gate tower accessed only by a spiral staircase. 

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The tower sticks up above the nearby roofs. Enrique Íñiguez Rodríguez/cc by-sa 3.0
This spiral staircase is the only way to move about the building Dr Alan P Newman (Atlas Obscura User)
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This local archaeological museum may not be the largest of its kind, but the building it’s housed in makes a visit well worthwhile as long as you are physically capable. The Museo Torre Font Bona is situated across four levels of a narrow 15th-century tower, accessed only by a spiral staircase to the top.

The 60-foot-high Torre Font Bona, located in Bayares de Mariola in the Valencia region of Spain, was built as an observation tower next to one of the gates of the town wall. To get from one exhibition room to another, you must be prepared to climb the narrow staircase that was introduced in a recent restoration of the building.

The ground floor of the museum presents information about the history of the tower, while the first floor covers the prehistoric archaeology of the local area. On the second floor, artifacts from the Celtiberian, Roman, and Moorish periods are presented, and the top floor is used for temporary exhibitions. The tower is easy to find even though it’s tucked behind a more recent building. The top of the structure, which is made of rough stone with ashlar corners and details, sticks out well above the nearby rooflines. 

Know Before You Go

The Torre Font Bonna is included as part of a tour itinerary known as the Vinalopo Castle Route, which also covers the town's castle and numerous other defensive structures in the Vinalopo valley. Entry is 1 euro but tickets for the nearby Valencia Paper Museum are also valid for the tower.

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