9 Best Sights in Andalusia, Spain

This private museum opposite the synagogue is dedicated to the culture of Sephardic Jews in the Mediterranean. Providing a very personal insight, the museum's director leads visitors through the five rooms of the 14th-century house, where displays cover Sephardic domestic life, music, festivities, the history of Córdoba's Jewish Quarter, and finally a collection of contemporary paintings of the women of al-Andalus ("al-Andalus" is Arabic for "Land of the West").

Diving into the maze of streets that form the scruffy San Mateo neighborhood east of the town center, you come to one of Andalusia's best archaeological museums. The collection is strongest on the pre-Roman period, and the star item, found near Jerez, is a Greek helmet dating from the 7th century BC.

In the heart of the old quarter, this museum is built around a 16th-century mansion and has finds from Córdoba's varied cultural past. You enter via the second floor, which is devoted to prehistoric, Roman, and Moorish exhibits. Highlights include a 1st-century head of Drusus (the son of Emperor Tiberius) and a marble statue of Aphrodite. The first floor shows finds from Roman and Moorish life in Córdoba including a stunning 2nd-century sculpture of Mithras killing a bull. Down in the basement you can see the ruins of a Roman theater built in the 1st century AD. The alleys and steps along Altos de Santa Ana make for great wandering.

Housed in the Casa de Castril with one of the finest Renaissance exteriors in the city, this small archaeological museum contains some real gems and has a stunning patio and views of the Alhambra from the second floor. The three rooms take you from prehistoric times with highlights such as raffia sandals dating from 5500 BC, through to the Iberian world whose treasures include a Greek breastplate armor (400 BC) and a white marble bull (600 BC), before reaching the Romans and Al-Andalus where you shouldn't miss the statues, ceramics, and a 15th-century astrolabe.

Among the fascinating items of mainly 19th and 20th-century Spanish folklore in this museum, located in the Mudejar pavilion opposite the Museo Arqueológico, is an impressive Díaz Velázquez collection of lace and embroidery—one of the finest in Europe. There's a reconstruction of a typical late-19th-century Sevillian house on the first floor, while upstairs, exhibits include 18th- and 19th-century court dress, stunning regional folk costumes, religious objects, and musical instruments. In the basement, you can see ceramics, pottery, furniture, and household items from bygone ages.

On the east side of the Plaza de Mina is Cádiz's provincial museum. Notable pieces include works by Murillo and Alonso Cano, as well as the Four Evangelists and a set of saints by Zurbarán. The archaeological section contains two extraordinary marble Phoenician sarcophagi from the time of this ancient city's birth.

This interesting museum behind Santa María has exhibits on Carmona's history with particular emphasis on Roman finds. There's plenty for children, and the interactive exhibits are labeled in English and Spanish.

Next door to the Oratorio de San Felipe Neri, this small but pleasant museum has a 19th-century mural depicting the establishment of the Constitution of 1812. Its real showpiece, however, is a 1779 ivory-and-mahogany model of Cádiz, with all of the city's streets and buildings in minute detail, looking much as they do now.

This stone palace with twin Mudejar towers was probably the residence of Ronda's Moorish kings. Fernando and Isabel appropriated it after their victory in 1485. Today it's the museum of Ronda, and you can wander through the patios, with their brick arches and delicate Mudejar-stucco tracery and admire the mosaics and artesonado (coffered) ceiling. The second floor holds a small museum with archaeological items found near Ronda, plus the reproduction of a dolmen, a prehistoric stone monument.