Welcome to the History Museum in Madrid, where you will learn everything you want to know about the city in the past, present and even the future.
Housed in one of Madrid’s impressive Baroque buildings, formerly the San Fernando Hospice, the History Museum offers an overview of the arts, industries, lifestyles and customs of the madrileños from 1561, the year when Madrid was established as the Spanish capital, to the present. This is one of Madrid´s hidden treasures, don´t miss it next time you are in town and now you can even visit from the comfort of your home.
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. Now you can access to a lot of this material through the website, a wonderful way to introduce your students to the times and history of Madrid.
One of the most interesting pieces of the collection is scale model of Madrid made by León Gil de Palacio in 1830. It is one of the oldest and more exclusive scales pieces in Europe because of its dimension and precision of the reproduction of the city. This large piece was constructed over 23 months and it replicates all the buildings of the city, the squares and gardens, patios and streets of Madrid at the time.
Let me invite you to revisit 19th Century Madrid through one of the virtual tours that the Museum offers. Let´s see if you can recognize any of the most famous buildings and sites of the city. Where do you want to you?