The “Fundación de Casas Históricas y Singulares” (Historic and Singular Houses Foundation) is a non-profit, nationwide Foundation established in 1998, bringing together people interested in the conservation of Cultural Heritage.

The Foundation's main purpose is to spread knowledge and to promote the conservation and maintenance of historic and unique buildings and especially those that are privately owned. These historic houses, of great cultural value and located throughout the geography of our country, are part of the identity of the Spaniards and are true symbols of the cultural richness of Spain.

These buildings often constitute heritage ensembles of great value, for the properties they contain and the cultural unit they constitute together, and also for the relationship they establish with their environment, which may be a garden or a natural area surrounding it, of equal historical and environmental significance, or the urban and historic layout of the city where they stand. They are, ultimately, heritage ensembles, fundamental elements of the shared cultural heritage of our country. Therefore, the Fundación de Casas Históricas y Singulares has as main beneficiary and recipient of its activities the Spanish society concerned with the preservation and transmission to future generations of the cultural heritage and of the unique historic buildings that comprise it.

The Fundación de Casas Históricas y Singulares is aware of the opportunities presented by the management of this Historic Heritage as a factor of sustainable development and generator of wealth, which can boost new jobs in areas as diverse as cultural tourism in its various forms, heritage didactics, architectural restoration and conservation, rural tourism, hotel industry, rental space, retail of handcrafted products of proven quality ... among many other activities. For this reason, the Foundation promotes the collaboration with the various public administrations in order to combine the
desirable cultural enrichment of society, with the necessary and proper maintenance of these non- renewable assets.

The origin of the project.

The Fundación Casas Históricas y Singulares is developing a research project entitled "The complex reality of house museums in Spain", which has had in its previous studies the support of the Ministry of Culture. The objective is to study the peculiarities that characterize the museum houses, their idiosyncrasies and the challenges of preservation, dissemination and management that arise, given our country’s shortage in literature related to this specific topic.

For the proper development of this study, the Fundación de Casas Históricas y Singulares has conducted an intensive research and documentation on the number of house museums and related entities that exist throughout the Spanish geography. As a result of this work over two hundred entities have
been located. During the study it became apparent the small degree of knowledge that exists on the current range of museums where house museums are concerned. The low level of awareness of these museum houses is the result of several determining factors, among which budgetary constraints, the
absence of a professionalized staff associated with the museum or a remote geographical location, far from the main tourist or cultural itineraries. Only in this way is understood that a significant number of these museums don’t have their own website, are absent or slightly mentioned in tourist sites and guides of the region and barely spread the possibility of touristic visits.

This website arises with the purpose of promoting the approach of many of these house museums and related entities to the public. The Fundación de Casas Históricas y Singulares hopes to soon complete the location on different maps of the museum houses available in other regions.