Museo de la Cuchillería

Albacete's most distinctive small museum, devoted entirely to the city's centuries-old knife industry. The collection — about 1,500 pieces ranging from medieval daggers to modern industrial cutlery, with the historic Albacete navajas at its heart — is housed in the Casa del Hortelano, a striking neo-Gothic mansion on Plaza de la Catedral, right in the city centre.

Displays cover the manufacturing process step by step (hand-forging, scaling, engraving), the social history of the trade, and famous regional makers. There is also a working demonstration on weekends. Entry is modest, and the museum building itself — built in 1912 with mock-medieval turrets — is half the attraction.

things to do museum
A story
Albacete has produced folding pocket-knives — *navajas* — since the 16th century, and at the trade's peak in the 1800s the city had more than a thousand workshops turning them out by hand. Bullfighters, traders and rural workers across Spain carried an Albacete navaja; the slim red-handled folding knife is still the city's emblem.