Museo Didáctico del Aceite en San Vicente del Raspeig

Museums

The Didactic Museum of the Oil is located in the old Almassera dels Assegadors, a building that has been rehabilitated to turn it into the first museum space of San Vicente del Raspeig. The objective is to make known to the visitors the process of traditional olive oil elaboration in a didactic and entertaining way through a guided tour of the facilities.   The project has led to the recovery of the original building, an installation promoted by Isidro Lillo, together with his sons Joaquín and Baltasar, at the beginning of the 19th century and who later maintained their heirs until the mid-70s, when the activity was abandoned. In the architectural performance, the preservation and visualization of the original building of the Almazara has prevailed and the plant of the old house that formed this complex and the well that served it has been maintained. Didactic and expository The interior of the Museum is divided into two parts, one didactic and the other expository. The first has a large panel that collects the different phases of the oil production process, from collection to packaging through olive cleaning and washing, grinding, shaking, pressing and decanting, and conservation. This panel is completed with an audiovisual space in which different videos have been prepared for adult and youth audiences, in Spanish and Valencian, which allows us to better understand this process.   In the exhibition part you can see the elements that make up this mill, all identified by posters in Spanish and Valencian in which they explain the function they performed. Among others, the first press of animal draft, the quintals of pressing of the capachos and the olive paste, the mechanical press with the introduction of the motor, the hopper to load the olive, the boiler for the hot water or the containers of Decanting where oil was separated from water.   The museum also has different spaces, such as the stable where the mules rested and were fed, the wood fireplace where the water was primitively heated and the lunches of the workers and customers or the warehouse were prepared, in which one can contemplate a still life with elements used in the collection, production and conservation of oil. In addition, curious tools have been preserved, such as pumpkins that served to separate the oil from water, units of measurement or oil to lubricate the machinery.   The Didactic Museum of the Oil has all the necessary attractions to become a place of obligatory visit for both schoolchildren and citizens and visitors interested in knowing the process of traditional oil production.