The creation of the Royal Collections Gallery means that Patrimonio Nacional will have a fundamental strategic and cultural instrument for the institution to reach out to the public, as the main centre for its promotion, conservation and research activity on the collections, which is managed by the institution on behalf of the people. It will also be its supreme showcase and the coordinating element for all cultural activities related to the Royal Sites and the historical and artistic assets that will continue to be housed in them, with an absolutely exclusive and unique profile in the museum scene not only in Spain but also around the world.
The Gallery has been conceived as an instrument at the service of Patrimonio Nacional and the historical, artistic, bibliographic and document collections that form part of it, with the primary mission of reaching out and providing society with a cultural service, and as a fundamental expression of the leading position that the institution holds in the Spanish and international cultural panorama.
It also entails the implementation of an absolutely new and necessary model for the Spanish museum scene, both in its concept and in its formulation and content, dealing with fundamental aspects that until now have not been sufficiently articulated in any other museum in the country regarding the global contribution of patronage and the collectionism of the various kings of Spain over the centuries. The museum is a historical narrative that serves as a common thread running through fifteen centuries of the evolution of Spain as a nation, from the Crown of Garrazar and the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo to Miquel Barceló, through an immersive experience of the dazzling, enormously suggestive and diverse collections that provoke multiple perspectives on our past in order to better understand our present and our future.
Once opened, the Gallery will also be at the centre of visits to the Royal Palace complex, where it can be entered both from the Plaza de la Almudena and from the Campo del Moro and Madrid Río gardens. Its presence in the city will therefore make the urban space it occupies a museum space, serving as a catalyst and articulator of the city's social movement and relations.
For all these reasons, the Museum of Patrimonio Nacional has a vocation to become an inclusive and integrating museum, accessible to and involving people of all different backgrounds and abilities, and is fundamentally confirmed in its social and educational mission as a place of knowledge and leisure open to the widest possible range of audiences.
The permanent installation of the Royal Collections Gallery, which is currently in the design phase of the Museums contract awarded to the UTE Empty, S.L.U., Telefonica Soluciones de Informática y Comunicaciones de España, S.A.U., will contain approximately 800 pieces, selected from a total of more than 160,000 cultural assets included in the Inventory of Historical-Artistic Assets of Patrimonio Nacional, in addition to the very rich bibliographic and document collections of the Royal Libraries of the Royal Palace and the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial and the General Archive of the Palace.
The museological arrangement of the collections, and therefore the visit to the museum itself, has been conceived as a unique experience, offering visitors a wealth of nuances and diverse range of stimuli. In short, it will be a continuous and fluid tale of cultural diversity -transversal and multiple- that will seek above all to give maximum visibility to the enormous cultural, aesthetic and historical potential of the objects that make up this story.
During their tour, the public will be able to see, from a distance, works belonging to different historical periods, thereby obtaining an overall impression of the cultural, aesthetic and historical outlook of each period, contemplating an absorbing and attractive temporal landscape that will lead the visitor on a fascinating journey from the 7th century to our contemporary world.
Jose Luis Diez. Director of Royal Collections of National Heritage.