The legacy of José María Herrero finally has an exhibition space with its importance and modern museographic techniques to make the richness of this tradition accessible to everyone, adding value and meaning. The Teruel town of Galve was decked out this Saturday for the official opening of its paleontology museum, although it has only been open since July and around 3,000 people have already visited it.
The City Council of Calve chose November for this official opening of the Municipal Museum, which houses Herrero’s personal collection, to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the Municipal Park of Antiquities. The event was attended by representatives of various Teruel institutions and people from the academic and scientific fields, and all of them had a very special memory of Jose Maria Herrero, who discovered sites of great scientific value.
The mayor of Galway, Francisco Sanguiza, promised it was a “very special” day and recalled that the project “took a lot of effort and money” but he was satisfied that it had finally been achieved.
Sanguiza highlighted that this project is fundamental to the city and the dissemination of fossils of the Herrero family. “It’s necessary for the evolution of the city and for us to know what’s in a place in line with what we have. It’s been renovated, we’ve introduced new technologies and everything is very modernized,” he explained. “It gives pride to a small but big city in antiquity,” he highlighted.
Maribel Herrero, Vice-Mayor of Galway and daughter of José María Herrero, on November 13, 1993 noted the importance of creating a palaeontological park on the slopes of the Alfambra River with dinosaur specimens and a municipal hall with her father’s discoveries. . He assured that it was a “very important milestone” in which other projects were established that made Teruel province “an ancient benchmark”.
Maribel Herrero emphasized that it is a “modern, synthetic and visual” museum and assured that Calv is proud. He was grateful that the center was named after his father because it was “a dream of his whole life” and although life circumstances prevented him from becoming a certified paleontologist, “he always maintained his interest” and presented his findings. To the world of science for your study.
The center has been more than 20 years in the making and has been carried out in several phases, partly because representatives of the Teruel Investment Fund (FAIT) and central and regional governments appreciated the importance of this type of project. For the development of the territory.
The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Manuel Blasco, opted for a “union of efforts of all administrations” to highlight Teruel’s ancient heritage and attract visitors to the community. The adviser congratulated “everyone” who made the museum possible and encouraged them to “keep moving forward” to build wealth.
Blasko points out Calvin’s Ancient Treasure, where he recalls the presence of one of Dinopolis’ satellite headquarters, the Legendark. Precisely, for the Minister of Environment and Tourism and the person in charge of Fite, Dinópolis was “one of the best projects” financed by this fund and selected new activities to grow the number of visitors in seven sub-headquarters in seven cities.
For his part, José Ramón Moro, deputy representative of the government in Teruel, pointed out that this information space was made possible by the Herrero family, the Calvé City Council and the scientists and financially Fitol and appreciated the “strategic work”. Investment fund.
Likewise, Moro wanted to focus on the figure of José María Herrero, who he assured her was “a completely intelligent person” who knew “how to reveal the secrets of nature.”
The scientific community remembered the image of this paleontological enthusiast and highlighted the richness of this territory. Félix Llorente from the University of La Rioja promised that “Calve will be able to make the world proud of everything he has” and hoped that “the seed started by José María Herrero” will continue to bear fruit in the future.
For Lorente, the opening of the museum is great news because science is “not hidden” and “shown in a very attractive way.”
The executive director of the Dinópolis Paleontological Complex Foundation, Alberto Cobos, recognized “the important work of Herrero and his legacy” and recalled that the foundation continues to work in Calvé and other cities in the province.
Kobos pointed out that paleontologists from different countries such as Germans, Dutch and Spanish have explored Galway since the first discoveries in 1958.
Ignacio Canuto, director of the Museum of Natural Sciences of the University of Zaragoza and member of the Aracosaurus research group, along with fellow researcher Gloria Cuenca, recalled how he met José María Herrero in the late 80s and how they changed. His research line and toured the sites with him to work on this important heritage. “He understood what science was, and it was the germ of what came later,” Canudo points out, adding that work in this area continues with resources such as the Ignites of the Las Serraticas site.
On the other hand, Carmen Soler, president of the board of trustees of the Maestrasco Geopark, assured that the Galve Ancient Park is “a landmark and an international reference that has changed the life of this city.”
Soler recalls that the Maestrasco Cultural Park is celebrating its 25th anniversary and is one of the paleontological attractions.
An updated classic
Fossils are the main characters of this exhibition center, which has a lot of content and uses the concepts of the new museum so that visitors can understand what these pieces mean and better understand the evolution of life on Earth.
Paleontology Dr. José Luis Barco, head of the Paleoimas Museum Project, highlighted this. “It’s a museum of fragments, it follows classic museums where the most important record is, and we’ve used new museum concepts with display cases highlighting fossil remains and powerful audiovisual resources,” he explained.
With so much information, the expert noted that it is a “deep museum” with so much content that you can take a general tour or “go deeper and invest time.”
Fargo highlighted that these types of gaps contribute to understanding the planet’s life history.
“Musealization is a form of communication, what you try to do is evaluate these remains and show them, through different communication techniques, their value and, above all, what they represent,” explained one of the purposes of the museum. Curator of the Museum.
