Abstract
Since the 19th century Spaniards had been studying museums with uneven zeal, somehow disconnected from the outburst of theoretical scholarship that was shaping a new academic discipline in other parts of the world after World War II. A period of political transition and growing internationalisation coincided with the tenure of Luis Monreal Tejada as Secretary-General of ICOM, from 1974 to 1985. However, only at the turn of the second millennium Museology boomed in the Spanish cultural context with numerous specialised publications and postgraduate courses, including the veteran M.A. in Museums Education and Communication of Saragossa University. Such academic blossom was in tune with the highest predicament worldwide of the Nouvelle Muséologie, which found a stronghold in Spain, emulating influential precedents in France and Latin America; then, Spanish universities were also an early cradle for the development in Europe of the so-called Critical Museology. Nowadays, despite some exceptions, such as the Study Programme in Critical Museology offered by the National Museum of Contemporary Art Reina Sofía in 2024, not only our training courses but also our book publishers are broadening their focus to encompass extra-museal or para-museal issues: Heritage Studies are proliferating in all our campuses. Are we experiencing the advent of a science to be called Patrimoniología or ‘Heritology’?