History and mission
It is a municipal museum that tells the history of the shoe and its auxiliary industries in Mallorca from the 13th century to the present day. The new Museum of Footwear and Industry, reopened at the end of 2018, is a museum center built from the same community as the hostel.
The vast majority of machines, tools, shoes, drawings, documents, photographs and other objects on display have been expressly donated or donated to the Museum by companies and individuals from the region. Each of them hides a real and personal story linked to the identity of a people that has made footwear a real motor of life. In addition, the inkers themselves have had an important role in deciding how their heritage should be displayed.
During 2017 and 2018, an audience study was carried out composed of surveys and discussion groups that sought to find out what the new Museum desired by the Inquers should be like. Likewise, the students of carpentry of the project “Es Grop”, Training Center and the Brigade of the City Council of Inca collaborated with tasks related to the museographic assembly.
At the end of 2018 the Museum was reopened under the new name of Museum of Footwear and Industry, with an exhibition discourse of more thematic and geographical scope adapted to the new additions to the Museum’s collection.
Finally, the economic contributions of entrepreneurs and associations from the area contributed to the materialization of a new museum space to dignify the industrial history of the region and at the same time show the future prospects of the current footwear sector.
It is located in the pavilion of general premises of what was the Army Infantry barracks, called General Luque, built according to the project of the Mallorcan architect Francesc Roca (1909-1910), with final remodeling of the architect of the Diputación Guillem Reynés Font.
The building, rehabilitated as a museum, was inaugurated on June 2, 2010 under the old name of the Museum of Footwear and the Skin. The Museum comprises a large space that is divided into two rectangular floors; a main one for temporary exhibition hall, warehouse and offices, and a first floor with the permanent collection of the Museum.
