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The discovery and cultural value of the Parpalló Cave, since 1872, as well as the fact that there is a rich and varied archaeological heritage in the county of La Safor, have been reflected on several scientific researches and in the prospection and gathering of archaeological traces activities made by local amateurs and scholars, All these have allowed the setting up of the Museu Arqueològic de Gandia. So, since the fitting out of a small local warehouse for archaelogical materials, in 1960, requests for more adequate installations were continuous until July 1972, when with the collaboration of the Diputació de València, the Museu Arqueològic de Gandia was officially inaugurated. Because of different circumstances, the museum was closed for the public in 1987. Since then, some fieldwork has been done, as well as research and documentation of the museum’s collection and its restoration. Besides, a new museographic project has been done for the Hospital de Sant Marc.

The collection of historic buildings of the Hospital de Sant Marc is located in the southeastern side of the medieval fortified area of Gandia, on the left bank of Alcoi’s river.

Archaeological digs made at the building’s site have documented a human setting in the area since the Bronze Age, as well as some remains of an Iberian necropolis. In addition, it has been discovered that there was an ancient road which, following the street known nowadays as Hospital Street, led up to a gate of the 14th century walls.

The permanent exhibition of the MAGa centres around the subject of the county’s Prehistory, since the very first inhabitants of the Paleolithic until the Metals Age, as an introduction to the urban hierarchical societies of the Protohistoric Age, being used for this the so-called Men and Women Wards in the ancient hospital. For successive cultures and monographic exhibitions a space in the old church has been provided. The design of the exhibition system, equipped with interactive units and computerized information desks, will allow the incorporation of new discoveries and of the results of new researches that can update and enrich the museum’s contents.

Apart from the administrative rooms, such as auxiliary technical installations to develop the maintenance, the research and informative functions typical of any museum, the MAGa has a restoration laboratory, a multipurpose showroom to develop didactic workshops, seminars and audiovisual projections, a researcher’s room, a documental archive and an auxialiry library specialized on patrimony and archaeology. Due to the constant increasing of the archaeological collection, above all thanks to recent urban digs made in the municipal area, the fitting out of a building next to Hospital de Sant Marc will allow their hosting in a systematized way and with the proper conservation conditions.