Look just ahead for a striking, red-and-white building with round windows reflecting in the water, perched right on the Ebro riverbank between the Stone Bridge and the Iron Bridge-you can't miss it!
Now pause for a moment and imagine the scene over a hundred years ago. The year is 1910: the air smells a bit different, there’s a bustle of people (and animals) near this very spot, and the impressive red building before you is not yet a house of wonder and imagination, but the city’s old municipal slaughterhouse. Yes, believe it or not, this very spot once echoed with clattering hooves and the shouts of workers busy with their daily tasks. The architect Luis Barrón, with a little help from the engineer Gómez Escolar, dreamed up this sturdy and beautiful structure, a stand-out example of Logroño’s industrial past. It’s almost as if they knew it was destined for something greater!
Decades rolled by, and as the city grew, the old matadero said goodbye to its original purpose in the 1970s. For a while, the building lurked in the shadows of its own history, waiting to find its voice again. A bit of a building in midlife crisis, really! But by the late 1990s, the citizens of Logroño and their city council hatched a brilliant plan: why not breathe new life into these walls and fill them with discovery, curiosity, and laughter? After a sweeping transformation, the doors of the Casa de las Ciencias-The House of Sciences-opened on April 22, 1999.
Step inside and you’ll find a bustling hub of learning and excitement, from the grand lobby guiding you to exhibitions, to a conference hall upstairs that seats 100, always ready for a new talk, film, or debate. The temporary galleries on the ground floor are ever-changing, so you’re never more than a few steps away from something jaw-droppingly new-be it dinosaur tracks, wild experiments, or the secrets of the stars.
But wait! The magic isn’t just indoors. Outside, in the garden between the two bridges, you’ll catch kids and grownups alike spinning, bouncing, and tinkering with curious playground gadgets inspired by physics, geology, and meteorology. Try the double spiral: spin, wobble, and maybe even get a dizzy laugh. Near the Stone Bridge, you can spot a dinosaur track on the building’s wall-straight from La Rioja’s own prehistoric past! And if you’re a fan of rocks, explore the chronologically ordered rock garden, where slabs of slate, quartzite, and ancient sandstones whisper stories about the Earth’s endless changes.
Nearby the Iron Bridge, you’ll find playful experiments with sound: echo games, musical stones, and even a tilting xylophone. Don’t be shy-jump, shout, and see if science can surprise you today.
Inside and out, the House of Sciences is open to everyone with a thirst for discovery. And who knows? Maybe you’ll leave with a newfound curiosity, or, at the very least, a fun science joke to try out at dinner. Congratulations, explorer-you’ve reached the end of our tour, but the adventure of learning here never really stops!
