Opening: The Mysterious World of the Iberians

Opening of the special exhibition at the MAMUZ Museum Mistelbach
on Friday, March 13, 2026, at 6 PM

The exhibition, conceived as a collaboration between the MAMUZ Museum Mistelbach and the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya in Barcelona, with support from the Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig, is the first major exhibition on the Iberians to be shown in Austria. Through more than 200 original objects and spectacular finds, it provides a fascinating insight into the mysterious world of the Iberians and the lives of the ancient peoples of Spain long before our time.

The Iberian Peninsula, present-day Spain and Portugal, was inhabited in the 1st millennium BC by numerous peoples of different origins. While Celtic tribes settled in the west and center of the peninsula, the habitat of various communities, collectively referred to as "Iberians," extended from the coasts of Andalusia in the south, along the entire eastern coast, to the southern French Languedoc. The Iberians, descendants of the indigenous peoples of Spain, came into contact with various foreign peoples starting around 500 BC: Greek city-states established colonies along the coast, Phoenician traders brought exotic goods to the land and also began to settle here. The fascinating civilization that formed as a result eventually came to the attention of the Romans, who conquered Spain during the Second Punic War (218–201 BC).