What to See in A Coruña - Top Sights and Attractions

Oldest Roman lighthouse still in use. The Tower of Hercules is the oldest extant lighthouse known. It has an ancient Roman origin on a peninsula about 2.4 km from the centre of A Coruña, Galicia, in north-western Spain. Until the 20th century, it was known as the Farum Brigantium. The Latin word farum is derived from the Greek Φάρος, Pharos, for the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The structure stands 55 metres tall and overlooks the North Atlantic coast of Spain. It was built in the 1st century and competently renovated in 1791.

There is a sculpture garden featuring works by Pablo Serrano and Francisco Leiro. The Tower of Hercules is a National Monument of Spain, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 27 June 2009. It is the second-tallest lighthouse in Spain, after the Faro de Chipiona.^[1]

The National Museum of Science and Technology is a Spanish technology museum dedicated to technology promotion and preservation. It owns a collection of more than 17,000 scientific instruments, technological devices, vehicles, machines and industrial tools from the 16th century until nowadays.

The museum was established on June 30, 1980 and its first location was opened on 1997 in the old Delicias railway station building in Madrid sharing premises with the Railway Museum. The museum current main exhibition hall is in La Coruña, opened on May 4, 2012. with a second exhibition hall in Alcobendas (Madrid), opened on December 12, 2014.

Among the pieces in display at La Coruña are the prototype of the "Mechanical Encyclopedia", the 1949 mechanical precursor to the electronic book, by Spanish inventor Ángela Ruiz Robles, the Fresnel lens used between 1857 and 1904 at the Tower of Hercules lighthouse, the first computer arriving in Spain, an IBM 650 computer bought by RENFE in 1959 and the front section of the "Lope de Vega", an Iberia Boeing 747 in service between 1981 and 2003, airplane that brought the Guernica to Spain on September 1981.^[2]

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, and Guernica, a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the slightly older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art.

Picasso's work is often categorized into periods. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period. Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of Surrealism. His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles.

Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments, and became one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art.^[9]

The Casa de las Ciencias is a cultural museum of scientific character located in the Parque de Santa Margarita in the city of La Coruña. It was created in 1983 by plenary agreement of the city council at the proposal of Mayor Francisco Vázquez Vázquez. The design of contents and its museological plan was written by Ramón Núñez Centella, who was its director until 2008. He was also the director of the National Museum of Science and Technology of Spain, MUNCYT Coruña, until his retirement. This museum was also inaugurated in 2011 in La Coruña, near the Riazor inlet, in the neighbourhood of Labañou.

This was followed by the Domus and Aquarium Finisterrae, scientific museums where it is forbidden "not to touch", in order to facilitate interactivity with visitors. The first president of the Association of Friends of the Casa de las Ciencias, Manuel Toharia, was inspired by them to create and provide content for the museums of the City of Sciences in Valencia. The Casa de las Ciencias in La Coruña had the second planetarium in Spain, where all imaginable nights of all times can be programmed. These museums are visited by a large number of schoolchildren from all over Spain every year.

Its objective is the dissemination, communication and scientific and technological education of citizens of all ages. It organizes exhibitions, conferences, awards, courses, screenings, editions, and collaborates with the media in scientific dissemination tasks. It also participates in the development and creation of meetings, forums and congresses. Its technical director is Marcos Pérez Maldonado.

The Casa de las Ciencias was the first of the three Museos Científicos Coruñeses (=mc2). Although it was created in 1983, the Casa de las Ciencias was inaugurated by the King and Queen of Spain on June 1, 1985 and became the first publicly owned interactive centre created in Spain. It is financed exclusively by the City Council of A Coruña.