International Museum Day at San Mames

This Thursday, 18 May, AC Museum will celebrate International Museum Day by offering free entry for all.

Both access to the museum and the Stadium Tour will be free. However, tickets cannot be booked online. Admission will work on a first-come, first-served basis and visitor will be given a free audio guide to complete their experience.

The museum's multi-purpose room is currently holding a temporary exhibition called "Friendly Trophies", which showcases some of the most significant friendly trophies Athletic Club have won since the club's foundation in 1898.

The opening hours will remain the same as usual, from 10:00 to 20:00 CEST.

20-year anniversary of the Trophy Room

Last Saturday, 13 May, was the 20th anniversary of the inauguration of the Athletic Club's Trophy and Exhibition Room, a space designed to replace a warehouse in Ibaigane where the club's trophies and prizes were previously kept. 

Located at the old San Mamés, it was known it would have a limited lifespan given that the construction of the new San Mamés was "imminent". 

The exhibition took a short tour through Athletic Club' history via the side's most important trpohies, as well as other items found among different individuals's private collections in previous years. With this, for the first time in 90 years of the club's existence, Members and fans could visit previously unseen areas of The Cathedral, such as the presidential box, press room, changing rooms and the dugouts.

Part of the Trophy Room was fitted out to start holding temporary exhibitions starting from the 2007/08 season. Those exhibitions took in a wide range of topics, such as: Athletic-related music for the anthem's 25th anniversary, the Gabarra for the 25th anniversary of the 1984 double, an collection of Athletic stickers to mark the 100th anniversary of the collectable and another exhibition on San Mamés' 100-year anniversary.

On 31 May 2013, after 10 years, the Trophy Room closed a few days before the old San Mamés stadium. During this period, 237,606 people passed through the room, with the number of visitors growing each season, from 9,768 in 2003/04 to 62,088 in 2012/13.

A leading football museum in Europe

In addition to enhancing Athletic's profile, the Trophy and Exhibition Room provided a new service to Members and fans, as previously it was not possible to see the Club's collection or take the San Mamés Tour. This whole process helped to revitalise the Club's heritage and was a great source of experience for the future museum, which was officially opened on 31 August 2017 at the current stadium, under the name AC Museoa. 

Unlike the Trophy Room, AC Museoa is designed to a be a participative museum, where the aim is to appeal to visitors through detailed descriptions, interactive displays and audiovisuals, all with the objective of explaining Athletic's history.

Finalist of the 2020 European Museum Award, AC Museoa has established itself as a major attraction in Bilbao. Since it opened, more than 425,000 people have already visited with the aim of learning more about what makes Athletic so special in the world of football.