The Royal Collections Museum is an art museum in the City of Madrid that is expected to be open in 2020. It will be located in a new building in the gardens of the Campo del Moro park next to the Almudena Cathedral and the Royal Palace. It is intended to house, for public display, paintings, sculptures, tapestries, luxury objects, carriages and other works of art and historical pieces that the different kings of Spain were treasuring throughout history.
History
The origin of the museum dates back to the 1930s, when a first project began in 1935 and the Foundation Decree of the Museum of Arms and Carriages was issued in 1936 by the government of the Second Republic, when the president was Manuel Azaña. The start of the Civil War paralyzed the project, which was resumed, although not materialized, in 1950 and 1980. National Heritage again raised the idea of building the museum in 1998, retaking the idea of creating a new carriage museum but also exposing the works of art, jewelry and tapestries of the dynasties that reigned in Spain in recent centuries, the Habsburgs and the Bourbons. In 2002, the project presented by the architects Emilio Tuñón and Luis Moreno Mansilla won the ideas contest for the building, and finally construction started in 2006. The works suffered delays due to the discovery of archaeological remainsin the zone, and in addition the central government had to increase considerably the budget destined initially to the work. The main façade is finished in granite of the Gris Quintana type. This project uses stones of great dimensions that had to be emptied in its interior to cover the structure of reinforced concrete. The placement of these large pieces was a very complex task for which a custom-made tool had to be created, which translated into a laying of the first stone as a decisive act. Also made in the same granite solid steps, rain gutter, large caps and bespoke tops. The construction of the building was completed in 2016 but because of the caretaker government that were at that time after the 2016 general election, it could not sign the contract of extra 25 million to finish the interior of the building and the opening was delayed to 2020. In October 2018, after a year of delays, a temporal union of companies formed by Empty and Telefónica won the public contest to decorate and manage the museum and its collections.
Awards
The building of the museum has received two main awards:
