Cultural Offerings

Welcome to Lacunza ~ The City ~ Cultural Offerings

San Sebastian is a city teeming with culture and there is never a dull moment. Information about museums, exhibitions, and libraries.

San Sebastian teems with culture and history that dates back hundreds of years into Basque culture. As a candidate for a European Cultural Capital in 2009, San Sebastian has a variety of cultural offerings. Here is a small preview of what we have to offer:

Congress Centre Kursaal
In a privileged environment at the Urumea estuary and near the Cantábrico front, the creator of this building, the famous architect Rafael Moneo, designed two translucent glass cubes like two broken rocks, in an attempt to 'perpetuate geography and, as far as possible, to emphasise the difference between the natural and the artificial'. The building is the result of an ambitious project, which provided Donostia - San Sebastián and Gipuzkoa with an innovative and modern infrastructure to celebrate congresses and cultural activities. The Kursaal Centre is not only an architectonic, emblematic complex, but also an avant-garde building, coherently defined and constructed in order to meet the needs of the organizer of congresses or more demanding cultural acts.
It has numerous spaces:

2 auditoriums with a capacity of 1806 and 642 people
20 different possibilities of meeting rooms with a capacity of 10 to 575 people
offices and VIP rooms
more than 5000 m2 for exhibitions, product presentations, job stands, celebration of special acts...
Large exterior terraces (more than 5000 m2) with views on the beach and on the river Urumea estuary
Banquet room for 1000 guests
Most modern equipment: Halls and rooms equipped with: simultaneous translation rooms, video-projectors, closed TV circuit, infrared, optical fibre, videoconference...

Museum Chillida Leku
In this museum you can enjoy the works of the famous artist Eduardo Chillida. Chilida-Leku is the realization of a long-lasting dream of the artist that inolves creating a space around his work piece so it could be permanently exposed. This museum is a true reproduction of the sculptural evolution and process of the artist for 50 years. The large garden that surrounds the building, an old Basque farm from the 16th Century, has been converted into an authentically open-air museum thanks to the 40 sculptures that encircle it. The disposition of these large-dimension sculptures, mainly made of stone and granite and in a place dominated by beeches, oaks and magnolias, creates a magic and unrepeatable natural environment.

Cultural Centre Koldo Michelena
During 2003, the foundation of the public college Koldo Mitxelena is celebrating its centenary. It was founded in July 1903 thanks to the "initiative and generosity of Pedro Viteri and Arana". The lecture guides, created by the Library of Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea, include a brief bibliography and critical comments about historical characters. Given its informing function, they show only the documents available in the library. The guides, created in collaboration with the central library of Donostia - San Sebastian normally refer to the literature of the Basque Country.
The center disposes of:

An exhibition room (Erakustaretoa), situated in the basement of the building, specialized in showing the art of the XXth Century, with a special dedication to the artistical production of the last 4 decades.
Ganbara, situated in the attic, is a multifunctional space that covers small exhibitions and other activities.
Areto Nagusia, auditorium with a capacity of 120 people, where the activities cycles we programm in KOLDO MITXELENA Kulturunea, are realized.
Offices of the Department of Culture, Euskera, Youth and Sports department, which cover the Historical-Artistic Patrimonial service, Museums and Archives, The library service, Cultural promotion and diffusion and technical secretary.

Museum San Telmo
In this museum you can admire Archeology, Ethnology and Painting, all year long. Moreover, they organise temporal exhibitions like images of the Cuban history. This will enable you to fully enhance your cultural knowledge.

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