`An Olive Oil Cultural Center And Museum in Jaén - Olive Oil Times
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An Olive Oil Cultural Center And Museum in Jaén

By Daniel Williams
Jul. 1, 2010 13:02 UTC

By Daniel Williams
Olive Oil Times Contributor | Reporting from Barcelona

The Agricultural Minister of Andalucía, Spain’s largest olive oil pro­duc­ing region, has signed a pro­to­col with the munic­i­pal­ity of Jaén to con­struct a tourist cen­ter trac­ing the his­tory and cul­ture of olive oil in the region. The project, known as ​“Almazara Escaparate”, has an esti­mated bud­get of more than 1,300,000 Euros, and is co-financed with 396,000 Euros between local admin­is­tra­tions and the Ministry of the Environment.

The essen­tial objec­tive is to pro­vide the city of Jaén with tourist-based infra­struc­ture using the city’s most notable ali­men­tary prod­uct as the cat­a­lyst. In addi­tion to bring­ing tourist rev­enue to the region, the museum will also help explain the cul­tural sig­nif­i­cance of olive oil to the liveli­hoods of gen­er­a­tions of Spaniards from the area.

Jaén is some­times referred to the World Capital of Olive Oil. The province of Jaén, with 550,000 hectares of olives, rep­re­sents over 25% of the Spanish olive grove sur­face and 42% of the Andalusian, pro­duc­ing around 45% of the national olive oil. This means that this province alone is respon­si­ble for an astound­ing 20% of the world’s total olive oil pro­duc­tion.

The project will be sit­u­ated on a farm in the his­toric old quar­ter of the city and will con­sist of an open and dynamic museum space, a lec­ture hall ded­i­cated to the study of olive oil and col­lab­o­ra­tive stud­ies from the nearby uni­ver­sity, an expo­si­tion area sell­ing var­i­ous olive oil based prod­ucts, and a restau­rant with sched­uled tast­ings.

The museum is a nod to the past and an opti­mistic look at the future of the olive oil sec­tor in Spain with exhi­bi­tions doc­u­ment­ing the place of olive oil in the econ­omy of Jaén, oth­ers explain­ing the role of olive oil in the cul­tural tra­di­tions of the region (in tra­di­tions, par­ties, lit­er­a­ture, and archi­tec­ture) and other more sci­en­tific inves­ti­ga­tions that look to the future of tech­nol­ogy and meth­ods of pro­duc­tion today. Of par­tic­u­lar impor­tance is a sec­tion ded­i­cated to explain­ing the var­i­ous health ben­e­fits of olive oil con­sump­tion as part of the famed Mediterranean diet which has been shown to have a num­ber of doc­u­mented long term health ben­e­fits.

The project’s main pro­po­nent and Jaén’s first female mayor, Carmen Peñalver, has called the effort ​“one of the most inter­est­ing and beau­ti­ful projects under­taken to cel­e­brate the cul­ture, her­itage and value of olive oil in the Andalucian and Jaenese societies.”[1]

[1]www.europapress.es​“Junta y MARM apor­tarán 396.000 euros para la muse­al­ización de la almazara-escaparate de la cap­i­tal” June 29, 2010.

Spanish City of Jaén Set to Build Olive Oil Cultural Center and Museum

The Agricultural Minister of Andalucía, Spain’s largest olive oil pro­duc­ing region, has signed a pro­to­col with the munic­i­pal­ity of Jaén to con­struct a tourist cen­ter trac­ing the his­tory and cul­ture of olive oil in the region. The project, known as ​“Almazara Escaparate”, has an esti­mated bud­get of more than 1,300,000 Euros, and is co-financed with 396,000 Euros between local admin­is­tra­tions and the Ministry of the Environment.

The essen­tial objec­tive is to pro­vide the city of Jaén with tourist-based infra­struc­ture using the city’s most notable ali­men­tary prod­uct as the cat­a­lyst. In addi­tion to bring­ing tourist rev­enue to the region, the museum will also help explain the cul­tural sig­nif­i­cance of olive oil to the liveli­hoods of gen­er­a­tions of Spaniards from the area.

The project will be sit­u­ated on a farm in the his­toric old quar­ter of the city and will con­sist of an open and dynamic museum space, a lec­ture hall ded­i­cated to the study of olive oil and col­lab­o­ra­tive stud­ies from the nearby uni­ver­sity, an expo­si­tion area sell­ing var­i­ous olive oil based prod­ucts, and a restau­rant with sched­uled tast­ings.

The museum is a nod to the past and an opti­mistic look at the future of the olive oil sec­tor in Spain with exhi­bi­tions doc­u­ment­ing the place of olive oil in the econ­omy of Jaén, oth­ers explain­ing the role of olive oil in the cul­tural tra­di­tions of the region (in tra­di­tions, par­ties, lit­er­a­ture, and archi­tec­ture) and other more sci­en­tific inves­ti­ga­tions that look to the future of tech­nol­ogy and meth­ods of pro­duc­tion today. Of par­tic­u­lar impor­tance is a sec­tion ded­i­cated to explain­ing the var­i­ous health ben­e­fits of olive oil con­sump­tion as part of the famed Mediterranean diet which has been shown to have a num­ber of doc­u­mented long term health ben­e­fits.

The project’s main pro­po­nent and Jaén’s first female mayor, Carmen Peñalver, has called the effort ​“one of the most inter­est­ing and beau­ti­ful projects under­taken to cel­e­brate the cul­ture, her­itage and value of olive oil in the Andalucian and Jaenese soci­eties.”[1]

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1.www.europapress.es​“Junta y MARM apor­tarán 396.000 euros para la muse­al­ización de la almazara-escaparate de la cap­i­tal” June 29, 2010.

[1]www.europapress.es​“Junta y MARM apor­tarán 396.000 euros para la muse­al­ización de la almazara-escaparate de la cap­i­tal” June 29, 2010.

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