Retirada Museum – another side to La Jonquera
La Jonquera isn’t all white plastic chairs on the roadside, high boots, short skirts, cheap booze and cigarettes.
The quaint old village off to the left of the main road, direction Le Perthus – Girona, is well worth a visit.
In the middle, near the church, is the Exile Memorial Museum (MUME), an immaculately kept and poignant reminder of the Retirada, a place for ‘memory, history and critical reflexion’.
Distressing photos and original footage of crowded beaches, the wreckage of emaciated bodies piled up in concentration camps, eye witness drawings and paintings of desperation and despair, lists and lists of names of the dead and disappeared…..
You will not come away unmoved.
Museu Memorial de l’Exili,
C/Major, 43-47, 17700 La Jonquera
Tel : +34 972 556 533
