On Wednesday 9 March, the exhibition El Galeón de Manila y la Ruta Marítima de la Seda en la estela de la Nao Victoria (The Manila Galleon and the Maritime Silk Road in the wake of the Nao Victoria), presented by the Instituto Seda España with the sponsorship of the National Commission for the 5th Centenary of the first Magellan-Elcano round the world voyage, will open at the L’Iber Museum in Valencia (Museo de los soldaditos de plomo).
The Instituto Seda España in collaboration with Unesco Silk Road presents this exhibition which began its itinerant tour inaugurating the exhibition at the Naval Command in Alicante, continued at the Casa dels Caragols in Castellón, now arrives in Valencia and will end at Escala Castelló in the Grao de Castellón from the 21st to the 25th of April.
The L’Iber Museum is a building from the 14th and 15th centuries, from the same period as the first round-the-world voyage and the Galleons, and one of its rooms exhibits a sample of the Silk Route. The intention of this exhibition is to highlight Spain’s fundamental participation in the development of the Maritime Silk Road.
The exhibition, which will be on display until 17 April, includes historical maps, navigation charts, a facsimile of Juan Vespucci’s portulan map of 1526, drawings of the period, models of caravels, galleons, xebecs, ships of those glorious and hard-fought years, spices, porcelain, clothing, silks, objects that were traded, letters from merchants, a facsimile of Pigaffeta’s diary, 18th and 19th century chasubles, and, most notably in this exhibition, the tapestry cardboard on loan from the Fábrica Real de Tapices, showing Columbus before the Catholic Monarchs (pictured), which is on public display for the first time, an honour that adds to the value of this exhibition.
