The collection after the show
Casa Sors guitar museum
What the Casa Sors guitar museum visit adds to the flamenco show: the makers, the Torres story, Barcelona's guitar line and how the visit works.
Book flamenco at Casa Sors ↗Quick answer
The Casa Sors flamenco ticket includes a guided visit to the Casa Sors Guitar Museum, a collection of historic and flamenco guitars. The venue's site names makers such as Antonio de Torres, Sanguino, Ramírez, Santos, García, Esteso and Simplicio. A guide leads the visit in English or Spanish, and the venue places it after the show.
What the visit shows
The venue describes a collection of historic and flamenco guitars gathered by the house since 1972, with instruments signed by great makers of the Spanish guitar. Its pages name Antonio de Torres, Sanguino, Ramírez, Santos, García, Esteso and Simplicio, among others. The visit is guided by the venue's own team, and it follows the show, so the music you have just heard is still in your ears when you see the instruments that make it.
Why Torres comes first
Wikipedia calls Antonio de Torres, who lived from 1817 to 1892, the most important Spanish guitar maker of the 19th century, and says his designs gave us the first recognisably modern classical guitars. He enlarged the body, thinned the soundboard and braced it in a fan pattern. To prove the top matters most, he built a guitar with papier-mâché back and sides in 1862; Wikipedia says it is in Barcelona's Museu de la Música.
What makes a guitar sound
Wikipedia says Torres reasoned that the soundboard was the key. To raise the volume he made his guitars larger, with a thinner top arched in both directions and braced by a symmetrical fan of struts laid out like a kite. That one idea is why a museum of guitars can look repetitive at a glance and sound very different in the hand: the top is where the instrument speaks, and makers have argued about it ever since.
Barcelona's guitar line
The city has its own guitar history. Wikipedia says Fernando Sor, the classical guitarist and composer, was born in Barcelona and baptised there as José Fernando Macario Sors. Miguel Llobet, born in Barcelona in 1878, studied with Francisco Tárrega and became a touring virtuoso. Tárrega, in turn, travelled from Barcelona to Seville to buy a Torres guitar. The spelling Sors in a baptismal record is a coincidence you may notice, not a claim about the house's name.
The house behind the museum
Casa Sors says it was founded in 1972 by Fernando Alonso Mercader, a guitarist and master luthier, and that a second generation now runs it. Alongside the flamenco room it has a music academy, an instrument shop and a restoration workshop for string instruments. The museum belongs to that working house, so the guitars come with people who repair and teach as well as perform.
How the visit works
The guided visit comes with the ticket and follows the performance. A guide leads it in English or Spanish. The venue's own pages give different ranges for its length, so leave the end of the evening open instead of booking something tight afterwards. The pages also mention a few minutes with the artists and photographs around the same time, so treat the finish of the evening as relaxed, not as a hard stop.
Who this isn't for
If you only care about the dancing, the museum may feel like a long coda. It is a guided talk among instruments, not a hands-on workshop, and it is not a place to buy a guitar on the night. People with limited mobility should write to the venue first, since the ticket advertises wheelchair access and the museum space is best checked with the venue.
Frequently asked questions
Does the ticket include the museum?
Yes. The ticket includes access to the Casa Sors Guitar Museum with a guided visit, led in English or Spanish.
Does the visit happen before or after the show?
The venue's site places it after the show. The start time for the whole evening is in your confirmation.
Which makers does the collection include?
The venue names Antonio de Torres, Sanguino, Ramírez, Santos, García, Esteso and Simplicio, among others.
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