Housed in one of Madrid’s impressive Baroque buildings, formerly the San Fernando Hospice, the History of Madrid Museum offers an overview of the arts, industries, lifestyles and customs of Madrileños from 1561, the year when Madrid was established as the Spanish capital, to the present.
Following thorough renovation, the museum reopened in 2014 with a collection comprising 60,000 objects linked to the city’s history: paintings, prints, maps, scale models, drawings, photographs, postcards, sculptures, porcelains, silverwork, fans, furniture, weapons, coins and medals.
Following the completion of restoration work on the model by Gil de Palacio, a large-scale cartographic model representing 19th-century Madrid and considered to be one of the most accurate cartographic documents of that period, it has been on public display at its new location in the cartography room on Floor -1 of the museum since 15 August 2025.
Museum-goers will see interesting pieces, like the paintings Allegory of the City of Madrid, by Francisco de Goya, and Virgin with Saint Ferdinand, by Luca Giordano, the large group of porcelains of Buen Retiro, a collection of historical maps, a series of objects from the house of Mesonero Romanos, pieces from Gutiérrez Solana’s studio, or a collection of historical photographs.
The San Fernando Hospice was designed by Pedro de Ribera, the architect who built the Conde Duque military quarters and the Puente de Toledo bridge.
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