Olive Oil Museum

San Felices de los Gallegos, Salamanca, Castilla y León.

Dating of the building: 18th century.

Applicant: Jesús Gómez Morante.

Reason for the award :

For the careful restoration of an old 18th-century oil press and for the efforts to disseminate traditional arts.

The restoration of an old 18th-century press has turned an abandoned building into the brand new Olive Oil Museum.

The Olive Oil Museum, popularly known as the Lagar del Mudo (Mute’s Mill), is installed in an old 18th-century olive press active until 1952. Acquired in 2000, its new owners proceeded to restore it in the form of the Oil Museum. In it, the history of the olive tree and oil is explained through different resources. Objects related to oil and its uses are also on display, like all kinds of vessels, a grinding wheel from 1868, stones from the Islamic period, Punic lamps, wicker baskets, and varieties of gadgets. The exhibition follows the transit of the olive until it becomes a golden liquid through different spaces; the patio, where it was deposited in lagaretas, the pressing and extraction room in the press, and the one in which it was stored in jars. After many years of neglect, the old Lagar del Mudo recovers for the general public the essence of the old oil manufacturing procedures.

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