NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF SPAIN

Description

Essentials about the National Archaeological Museum of Spain in brief

Located in Plaza de Colón, the Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España (National Archaeological Museum of Spain) is worth a visit for all Madrid travelers with a passion for archaeology. The museum, usually just called “MAN” for short, displays around 13,000 archaeological exhibits in forty halls with a focus on historical finds from the Iberian Peninsula.

The collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Spain

The museum was founded in 1867 and reopened in 2014 after several years of renovation. Through objects and works of art from a wide variety of Mediterranean cultures, the National Archaeological Museum of Spain provides a historical retrospective into the long history of Spain and its inhabitants. Exhibits range from Greek ceramics and Roman sculptures to Visigothic dedicatory crowns and Spanish-Moorish ivory chests.

Among the museum’s most important exhibits are the sculpture Dama de Elche, an Iberian bust from the 5th century B.C, as well as the reconstructed Mausoleum of Pozo Moro from the late 6th century B.C. Other important exhibits of the National Archaeological Museum are the Treasure of Guarrazar, the most extraordinary representative of Visigothic goldsmith art, the Ivory Box of Zamora, a beautifully detailed work of Spanish-Moorish ivory artists and one of the most important collections of Greek vases in the world.

Another highlight of the MAN is the replica of the famous Altamira Cave, famous for its rich prehistoric rock paintings. In addition, the numismatics department, which contains around 300,000 coins, is worth a visit, and not just for amateur coin collectors.