Navigating denial: decolonising legacies of slavery and empire in Iberian heritage tourism

This article examines how museums and heritage sites in Spain and Portugal represent their colonial pasts and the histories of enslaved peoples. Despite calls to decolonise European museums, Spanish and Portuguese institutions lag behind some other former colonial powers in confronting their imperial legacies. Drawing on detailed site visits and analyses of museum exhibitions and heritage sites in Madrid, Seville, Cádiz, Lisbon, and Lagos, the article demonstrates how key museums present Eurocentric narratives that celebrate a ‘Golden Age’ of navigation and discovery while systematically erasing or marginalising the experiences of enslaved Africans and indigenous Americans. The analysis discusses how defensive attitudes around Spain's leyenda negra (black legend) debate and Portugal's unresolved relationship with its ‘Age of Discoveries’ continue to shape museum discourse. Where enslaved peoples are acknowledged, they appear as abstractions – empty shackles and shadowy figures – rather than as individuals with voices and agency. The article concludes that tourism attractions have an ethical obligation to provide fuller, more honest representations of colonial history, moving beyond celebratory narratives to incorporate marginalised perspectives and acknowledge the human costs of empire.