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This slickly designed new museum (see Museo de la Asegurada) brings Alicante’s past to life. As well as sections devoted to each phase of history, there are fascinating recreations of archeological sites, including an old graveyard and a wreck containing amphorae.

Alicante’s finest civic Gothic building has been sensitively converted to hold its collection of 20th-century art. Mobiles and kinetic works by the Alicantino artist Eusebio Sempere feature strongly, but there are also paintings by Juan Gris, sculptures by Eduardo Chillida, and sketches by Picasso and Dalí.

A beautifully restored 18th-century palace houses this wide-ranging collection of paintings, furniture, ceramics and engravings by Alicantino artists.

The prize exhibit here is the Villena Treasure (Tesoro de Villena) – a glittering Bronze Age hoard of bracelets, bowls, torcs and bottles, fashioned from thin sheets of beaten gold, and skilfully decorated with simple incisions or raised patterns.

This intriguing museum in Spain’s shoe-making capital documents the evolution of shoe design from the early spurred metal boots worn by medieval knights to the most extravagant 21st-century creations. If you love shoes, don’t miss it.

The 18th-century Hospital of San Juan de Díos is the graceful home of Orihuela’s archaeo-logical museum, which recounts the history of the city from its earliest beginnings to the 18th century. The eeriest exhibit is a 17th-century processional float depicting a she-devil known as La Diablessa.

This much-restored 16th-century granary is home to fragments of Iberian sculpture and Visigothic capitals, as well as a large collection of paintings, including several works by Xàtiva-born José de Ribera. A portrait of King Felipe V is famously hung the wrong way up, as punishment for his burning the city down in 1707.

Kids of all ages will enjoy this museum, which has everything from puppets to train sets, miniature tea services and model aeroplanes. The exhibits date mainly from the early 20th century, and come from all parts of the world.

Dedicated to the 18th-century Murcian sculptor Francisco Salzillo (see Other Sights in Murcia), this museum contains a collection of gilded processional floats bearing his exquisite, highly emotional depictions of the Passion of Christ. Adjoining galleries display a large number of nativity figures (belenes ).

Artifacts dating back to Phoenician times illustrate Cartagena’s long maritime history. There’s a vast collection of ancient amphorae, and early maps and documents attesting to the city’s importance 2,000 years ago.