Museo del Turrón

The Museo del Turrón in Jijona began in the 1960s as a small collection inside the old carpentry workshop of a local nougat factory, put together by Juan Antonio Sirvent Selfa to preserve machinery that became obsolete with each new generation of equipment. Over time it took over the whole workshop space to become today’s museum, dedicated to the technological and economic history of nougat-making in Jijona.

Three floors on the story of nougat

The visit is spread across three floors: raw ingredients (almonds and honey, the two ingredients that give much of the local industry its name), the manufacturing process, from 19th-century artisanal techniques to today’s industrial machinery, and the product’s commercial history, with packaging, documents and advertising from different periods. The museum sits next to an operating factory, so at certain times of year part of the real production process can be seen up close.

Turrón de Jijona and turrón de Alicante are quite different products: the first is a soft paste of ground almonds and honey, while the second comes as a hard block studded with whole almonds.

Jijona is home to much of Spain’s nougat industry, with turrón de Jijona and turrón de Alicante both holding protected geographical status, and the museum is the clearest introduction to why this inland town became the sector’s reference point.

A visit takes one to two hours and makes a solid option for a rainy day or a trip with children. It combines well with the Forn del Raval de la Peñita, the traditional wood-fired oven still baking sweets, or the Castillo de la Torre Grossa, up in the higher part of town.