A major new guitar museum, the “Antonio de Torres”, has opened in Almeria city. This despite the fact that we don’t make guitars, don’t really play them, and have no tradition of flamenco in this area.
Anyway, it seems that the famed guitar maker “Antonio de Torres” (1817-1892) was originally from Almeria. His Wikipedia entry says that “Torres is as revered among guitarists as Antonio Stradivari is revered among violinists.” Can’t say I’d ever heard of him.
His pops was the local tax collector, and the family went back to their native Seville sometime after he was born. He learnt the craft in Granada and opened his first workshops in Seville.
Wikipedia reckons he did his early work in Seville, where his family was from, and the last 20 years of his life he went back to Almeria. Fair enough.
Several people throughout Andalucia have donated original guitars to the museum.