Museo de Navarra

Museo de Navarra is the principal historical and artistic museum of the Autonomous Community of Navarre, housed in a sensitively adapted 16th-century hospital building on Calle Curia in Pamplona's old town. The building — the former Hospital de Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia — retains a beautiful Plateresque portal as its entrance, a richly detailed 16th-century carved stone doorway that establishes the museum's historic character from the first approach. The permanent collection spans from prehistoric Navarre through the medieval and Renaissance periods, presenting one of the richest concentrations of Romanesque art in the region. The highlights of the Roman section include a series of extraordinary 3rd-century mosaic floors excavated from Navarrese sites — among the finest Roman mosaics in northern Spain. The Romanesque collection displays 12th-century carved stone capitals removed from the original cathedral of Pamplona during its renovation, showing virtuoso figural carving. The medieval section contains illuminated manuscripts, liturgical goldwork, and Navarrese Gothic panel paintings. The 18th-century portrait of the Marqués de San Adrián by Francisco de Goya is the museum's single most celebrated work — a painting of considerable psychological intensity and technical mastery. The museum is modest in scale and well-organised, navigable in under two hours. Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning entry is free.