National Archaeological Museum

The Museo Arqueológico Nacional is Spain's principal repository of archaeological and ethnographic material, holding approximately one million artefacts spanning prehistory to the early modern period across the full geographical and cultural breadth of the Iberian Peninsula. The museum was founded by royal decree of Queen Isabella II in 1867 and has occupied purpose-built Neoclassical premises at Calle de Serrano 13 in the Salamanca district of Madrid since 1895, sharing a building with the National Library. The museum underwent an extensive restoration and modernisation between 2008 and 2014, reopening with a new visitor circuit and updated displays that represent one of the most significant archaeological museum renovations in Europe in the early 21st century. The collection is organised chronologically from Palaeolithic Iberia through the Bronze Age, the Phoenician and Greek colonial periods, the Iberian civilisation, the Roman province of Hispania, the Visigothic kingdom, and the medieval Islamic and Christian periods. The undisputed highlight is the Dama de Elche — a 5th or 4th-century BC Iberian stone bust of extraordinary sculptural quality discovered in Elche (Alicante) in 1897 and considered the defining artistic achievement of pre-Roman Iberian culture. The Visigothic Treasure of Guarrazar, a collection of gold votive crowns from the 7th century AD discovered near Toledo in the 19th century, represents the finest surviving Visigothic goldwork in the world. The prehistoric section includes material from Spanish cave sites, and a full-scale reproduction of the painted ceiling of the Cave of Altamira is displayed in the basement, allowing visitors to experience Palaeolithic cave art without travelling to Cantabria. Comprehensive Roman Hispania collections — sculpture, mosaics, applied art — and Phoenician and Greek colonial material from coastal Iberian sites round out a collection of exceptional depth.