The Naval Museum extends the exhibition on ‘Blas de Lezo’

The Naval Museum has extended until March 3rd the record-breaking exhibition ‘Blas de Lezo: the Courage of Half-man’ devoted to this illustrious Navy general best known for his victory over British troops in Cartagena de Indias in 1741.

The exhibition was to close on January 13th but has been extended a further seven weeks given the positive reception from the public, and the fact that the other exhibition venue in Cádiz will not open until the middle of March. Since its inauguration on September 18th the visits to the Naval Museum have increased 38%.

The Naval Museum has received a total of 135,484 people, a record figure and in line with the current growing trend of visitors. It was in 2011 when the museum exceeded the barrier of 100,000 visitors.

This rise in the number of visitors is due to the impact of the exhibition on Blas de Lezo and his time, and the fact that the museum opened its doors during the summer month of August 2013 for the first time.

The exhibition on the Pacific Ocean receives 12,600 visitors

The ‘Casa de América’ has also become a satellite venue of the Museum with an exhibition on the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Núñez de Balboa 500 years ago. The show has been the result of a fruitful collaboration between both institutions exhibiting around 180 objects owned by the Spanish Navy.

This exhibition will close on February 2nd. It is part of a larger project organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation on the ‘Spanish Heritage on the United States of America’. This is one of the seven virtual exhibitions which can be visited in Google’s Cultural Institute. To mark the launch of the project, Her Majesty the Queen of Spain visited the exhibition on December 12th.