Museu de Prehistòria de València (La Beneficència)

The Museum of Prehistory of València covers more than half a million years of human presence in Valencian lands, from the Palaeolithic to the Visigothic period. It occupies the neoclassical La Beneficència palace, a 19th-century former charity house in the Carme district that is worth the visit in its own right.

What makes it special

The Iberian culture is the heart of the collection. Here you'll find the Warrior of Moixent (the small "Bicha"), a bronze figurine of an Iberian horseman that has become a symbol of Valencian culture, the painted vases of Llíria, with scenes of hunting and dance, and the enigmatic lead sheets with Iberian script found at sites such as La Bastida de les Alcusses (Moixent), which the museum itself excavates.

What to see

• The Palaeolithic and Neolithic rooms, with tools, art and the first settlers.
• The Iberian hall: the Warrior of Moixent, the Llíria vases and the inscribed lead sheets.
• The Roman mosaics and glassware and the transition to the Visigoths.

Practical tips

Admission is free at weekends, and since it shares the La Beneficència building with the Valencian Museum of Ethnology, you can see both museums in one visit. It usually opens Tuesday to Sunday; allow a good hour and a half. It's in the Barri del Carme, a short walk from the IVAM.

Curiosity: texts in the Iberian language survive in València that we still cannot fully read, which makes these lead sheets an unsolved mystery of the peninsula. It's a free thing to do in València and useful for understanding the region before heading out to explore towns with Iberian roots; see also what to do in València.