The Pontevedra Museum (formerly the Pontevedra Provincial Museum) is a museum in the Galician city of

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the '' Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the Rías Baixas in Galicia. It is also the capital of its own municipality wh ...

in Spain. It was founded by the

Provincial Deputation of Pontevedra The Provincial Deputation of Pontevedra (Spanish language, Spanish: , Galician language, Galician: ) or Provincial Council of Pontevedra is the Provincial deputation (Spain), institution in charge of the government and administration of the Spanis ...

on 30 December 1927 and has six buildings for its exhibitions. It has permanent and temporary exhibition rooms. The museum's collections are multidisciplinary, classified into rooms for painting, sculpture,

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

and ethnography. The Pontevedra Museum was declared a Cultural Interest Property on 1 March 1962. It was awarded the Gold Medal of Galicia in 1996.

History

The Pontevedra Museum was founded by the Provincial Council of Pontevedra in the

pazo A Pazo is a type of Galician traditional house. Similar to a manor house, pazos are usually located in the countryside, as former residences of important people in the community (formerly of kings and nobility). They were of crucial importance in ...

of Castro Monteagudo on 30 December 1927 and was opened to the public on 10 August 1929. Since 2012, the museum has occupied five historic buildings plus a sixth modern building which was begun in 2004 and inaugurated in 2012. These six buildings are: the Gothic ruins of the San Domingo Church and the García Flórez, Fernández López, Sarmiento (former Jesuit baroque college of the Saint Bartholomew's Church) and Castro Monteagudo buildings as well as a large modern building, the Castelao Building, inaugurated in 2013. In the first half of 2022, the museum recorded 108,543 visitors and by the end of the year almost 175,000.

Management

The five directors of the Pontevedra Museum have been: * 1927–1937: Casto Sampedro Folgar * 1937–1940: Gerardo Álvarez Limeses * 1940–1986: Xosé Filgueira Valverde * 1986–2018: José Carlos Valle Pérez * 2019–: José Manuel Rey García

Buildings

Castro Monteagudo

This building dates from 1760, and bears this name because it was built by José de Castro y Monteagudo, the first auditor of the

province of Pontevedra Pontevedra is a province of Spain along the country's Atlantic coast in southwestern Europe. The province forms the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Galicia. It is bordered by the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, and Ourense, ...

. It is the first building of the museum. The different rooms traditionally displayed archaeological collections, pre-Roman and Roman goldsmithery, silverware and Gothic, Renaissance, still life and Spanish paintings. The permanent exhibition is currently being redesigned.

Archaeological rooms

Three rooms in the Castro Monteagudo building are dedicated to archaeology, presenting significant remains from the prehistoric and

protohistoric Protohistory is a period between prehistory and history during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted the existence of those pre-literate groups in their own writings. For example, in ...

stages of Galicia. During the last renovation works, all these archaeological collections were transferred to the Sarmiento building. Some of the collections remain in their place in 2014, such as the traditional collection of Galician goldsmith's art.

Fernández de la Mora y Mon silverware collection

The collection of civil and religious silverware, on permanent display in the Castro Monteagudo building, was acquired by the writer and diplomat Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora y Mon. It consists of pieces from before 1900, with civil art predominating over sacred art. The pieces come from the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

and Latin America, as well as from other places such as Russia and China. A series of nickel-plated silverware (with lead

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductilit ...

inlay Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with th ...

s) includes Russian boxes and

cup holder A cup holder is a device, such as a zarf, to hold a cup or other drinking vessel. It may be free standing to hold cups securely on a desk or other flat surface, or in a tree style to store sets of cups in kitchens. They may be built into automob ...

s, Turkish snuff boxes and Thai cups. One of the oldest pieces is a 15th or 16th century

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

baptismal cup. The most historically interesting is a

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

preacher

Thomas Hooker Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding spea ...

box from 1600, and the most noble is an early-19th-century Moscow

snuff box A decorative box is a form of packaging that is generally more than just functional, but also intended to be decorative and artistic. Many such boxes are used for promotional packaging, both commercially and privately. Historical objects are ...

with curved edges. The most valuable piece is an imperial

tureen A tureen is a serving dish for foods such as soups or stews, often shaped as a broad, deep, oval vessel with fixed handles and a low domed cover with a knob or handle. Over the centuries, tureens have appeared in many different forms: round, re ...

, forged in Strasbourg in the 1800s, as well as a trophy jar given by the Empress of Germany, Augusta-Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, to the winner of a race in 1898, with gold coins inlaid with the

effigies An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

of the three emperors who ruled in the same year.

García Flórez

The Pazo García Flórez is named after Antonio García Estévez Fariña and his wife Tomasa Suárez Flórez, who built this

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

on a previous

in the 18th century. It became part of the Provincial Museum of Pontevedra in 1943. The collection on display in its rooms includes furniture and navigation equipment, the cabin of the ironclad Numancia, religious sculptures, pottery and a traditional Galician cuisine,

Engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

s, Sargadelos earthenware and jet objects.

Fernández López

It was built in 1962 and completed in 1965. The name is a tribute to the main donor José Fernández López. It exhibits a large collection of romantic and historical paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries, with rooms specifically dedicated to

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

and

Joaquín Sorolla Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida ( va, Joaquim Sorolla i Bastida, 27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) was a Spanish Valencian painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes and monumental works of social and historical themes. ...

. This building houses the museum's administrative offices, the library and the graphic archives (with over 500,000 entries).

Library

The library started with a batch of 108 books. In 2007, its collection included over 6,000 serial titles, over 150,000 bibliographic records, 500 maps and plans and documentation sections. It is a specialised library available to Researchers, with a reading room open to the public only for consultation of the collections, which cannot be borrowed. The library fulfils several tasks of scientific interest and collaborates with the Ministry of Culture and the

Galician Government The Xunta de Galicia (; "Regional Government of Galicia") is the collective decision-making body of the government of the autonomous community of Galicia, composed of the President, the Vice-President(s) and the specialized ministers (''Consell ...

Ruins of St. Dominic's Convent

It is the oldest building in the museum. It occupies the remains of the convent of San Domingo, built in the 14th and 15th centuries and abandoned after the

Spanish confiscation The Spanish confiscation was the Spanish government's seizure and sale of property, including from the Catholic Church, from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. It was a long historical, economic, and social process beginning with ...

of Mendizábal in 1834. The convent only preserves the main chapel and the side chapels of the chevet. In addition to the remains of the church itself, which are still standing, the ruins also contain a large collection of coats of arms,

tombstones A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, ...

, canopies,

Visigothic The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...

and Romanesque capitals and various Statues.

Sarmiento

Pontevedra_Portada_del_Colegio_de_la_Compañía_de_Jesús

This is the former Jesuit College, a baroque building begun in 1695 and completed in 1714 next to the church of St Bartholomew. It was incorporated into the museum in 1979. After a thorough remodelling, it was opened to the public on 21 August 2013, with the archaeological collection and medieval Galician art from the 13th century. The collection of

Torc A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some had hook and ring closures and a few had ...

s and other pieces of the

Castro culture Castro culture ( gl, cultura castrexa, pt, cultura castreja, ast, cultura castriega, es, cultura castreña, meaning "culture of the hillforts") is the archaeological term for the material culture of the northwestern regions of the Iberian Pe ...

from the treasures of

Caldas de Reis Caldas de Reis is a municipality in Galicia, Spain in the north of the province of Pontevedra. History In Ptolemy's Tables, the town Caldas de Reis (in Galician language) appears as ''Aquae calidae'' ( grc, Ὕδατα Θερμά, meaning hot ...

and Agolada, among others, is particularly noteworthy. Galician ceramics are also on display, and there are also rooms dedicated to the city of

and the Pilgrim Virgin. In the security room of the building is the treasure of Caldas de Reis, dating from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

. It was discovered buried in a

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineya ...

on 20 December 1940 and is the most important gold treasure in the

and one of the most important in Europe due to its weight.

Castelao

Pontevedra_capital_Museo_de_Pontevedra_Sexto_Edificio

The sixth building of the museum is a building constructed between 2004 and 2008, designed by the architects Eduardo Pesquera and Jesús Ulargui, which means an extension of 10,000 m2 for exhibitions and

Workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the on ...

s. This sixth building was inaugurated on 4 January 2013. It is located behind the church of Saint Bartholomew. It is spread over four floors and a ground floor. The lower floor is dedicated to temporary exhibitions and the three upper floors are dedicated to the permanent exhibition of the museum's collections, in 23 rooms. These include collections of Galician art, from the Gothic to the modern period, as well as collections of other Spanish and foreign artists. The first floor is dedicated to Galician art, from the

Gothic period Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Northern Europe, North ...

to the end of the 19th century, under the name ''Xeración Doente''. Sculptures and relics are on display, including the altarpiece of Santa Maria de Belvis (from the Dominican convent in Santiago de Compostela), and various paintings and sculptures by

Gregorio Fernández Gregorio Fernández (April 1576 – 22 January 1636) was a Spanish Baroque sculptor. He belongs to the Castilian school of sculpture, following the style of other great artists like Alonso Berruguete, Juan de Juni, Pompeyo Leoni, and Juan de Ar ...

, Xosé Gambino,

Jenaro Pérez Villaamil Jenaro Pérez de Villaamil y d'Huguet (3 February 1807 – 5 June 1854) was a Spanish painter in the Romantic style who specialized in landscapes with figures and architectural scenes. He often inflated the scale of the buildings relative t ...

, Serafin Avendaño etc. The second floor is dedicated to art from the end of the 19th century to the first third of the 20th century. Works by Ovidio Murguía, Álvarez de Sotomayor, Camilo Díaz, Asorey and busts and instruments by the violinist Manuel Quiroga Losada can be seen here. The two rooms dedicated to Castelao are particularly noteworthy. The museum houses Castelao's most emblematic production, including the original album Nós. The third floor is dedicated to Galician artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, with later authors such as the Grupo Atlántica. In the basement there are restoration

s, a large

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

and a cafeteria. The remains of the Pontevedra city walls can also be seen here.

Santa Clara

On 1 December 2021, the City Council of Pontevedra bought the Saint Clare's Convent from the Order of Poor Clares for €3.2 million. On 3 January 2023, the City Council transferred the complex to the Provincial Deputation retaining the right of use of the gardens and the forest. The Deputation will integrate the convent into the Museum as its seventh building after a comprehensive restoration.

Scientific publications

The museum's annual magazine, ''El Museo de Pontevedra'', was first published in 1942. In addition to two catalogues of each exhibition, the museum publishes Monographs.

Notable exhibitions

Exhibition_Ruth_Anderson_in_Pontevedra_03

Exhibition_Ruth_Anderson_in_Pontevedra_01

Between August and October 2022, the Museum of Pontevedra held a temporary exhibition of some 75 traditional folk costumes and crafts of Galicia, inspired and accompanied by American photographer Ruth Matilda Anderson's photographs taken between 1924 and 1926. After five years of research by the Ethnographic Association of Pontevedra ''Sete Espadelas'', this exhibition presented a selection of traditional clothing mounted on

mannequin A mannequin (also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off different fabrics and textiles. P ...

s and other items of daily life from the museum's historical collection as well as reconstructed in historical detail. Dating back almost 100 years, Anderson's pictures and the recreated scenes of rural life showed, among others,

milkmaid A milkmaid, milk maid, dairymaid, or dairywoman was a girl or woman who milked cows. She also used the milk to prepare dairy products such as cream, butter, and cheese. Many large houses employed milkmaids instead of having other staff do the wor ...

s gathered in

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...

's Rúa Nova at dawn, women carrying ceramic pots to market, craftsmen selling wooden clogs and people in traditional raincoats made of straw. An accompanying catalog was published, with all of Anderson's photographs as well as of the costumes shown in this exhibition. It was visited by more than 14,000 visitors, making it the most successful event of the museum in the five preceding years.

Bibliography

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