Inauguration Hemp Museum Barcelona

Stuck for something to do this Friday ? Well, the sun is out, the terraces are filling but there's also a special opening this Friday of Barcelona's new Hemp Museum. Sharing it's patronage from Ben Dronkers  - founder of the Amsterdam Hemp Museum - the new Barcelona sister version is housed in the fantastic Palau Mornau deep in the Gothic Quarter of the Catalan Capital. The museum exposes the origins of Hemp used in both industrial and nutritional uses, as well as cultural and medicinal uses of cannabis and a detailled look at the different varieties of the plant itself.

This week saw the Cultural Cannabis Awards held in the Museum itself with British Entrepreneur Richard Branson was in attendance along with special invited guest the Mayor of Rasquera - Tarragonian town thrust in to the spotlight in recent months for passing a local law permitting the cultivation of Cannabis in the region - the first of its kind in Spain. 


The location of the Museum also has an interesting story - built in the 16th Century by the SantCliment family (still named in a carrer in the Raval), it was discovered by Dronkers in 2002 in a "depolrable state". It has taken since then to slowly reform and refurbish the Palace to its former glory which now houses historical art and paintings from the 17th Century as well as botanical prints from as far back as the 18th and 19th Century all about the plant. It's tucked away on Carrer Ample (last on your left going down Las Ramblas), number 35.


The Mueseum opens tomorrow at 14h and will be opened by Jaime Prats, founder of the magazine  and emember of the Federacion de Asociaciones de Cannábicas (FAC). Although I've been invited, I won't be able to attend due to work commitments, but I can highly reccomend enquiring as to tomorrow's opening or heading on down there on another occasion. The opening hours are almost every day from 10am till 11pm and prices are 9€ for entrance - USDollars GBPounds and Euros all accepted as payment. 


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