Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias

The Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias is the principal art museum of Asturias, and it occupies a group of historic buildings in the centre of Oviedo, close to the cathedral. The museum has its main home in the Palacio de Velarde, an eighteenth-century Baroque palace, and it extends through neighbouring houses that were joined to it, among them the House of Oviedo-Portal and the House of Solís-Carbajal. Together they make a complex of noble buildings that give the visit a distinctive atmosphere, with old doorways, courtyards and staircases leading to the galleries.

The collection numbers about fifteen thousand works, and it covers a long period, from the fourteenth century to the present day. Its basis is the art that belonged to the Asturian religious houses and noble families, and the works acquired after the nineteenth-century closure of many monasteries, supplemented by gifts and purchases over the years. The museum is stronger in Spanish art than in foreign art, and the depth of the Asturian section is its special feature. Early rooms show religious painting and sculpture, including altarpieces and wooden figures that were made for the churches of the region, and the Baroque galleries show how artists responded to the period’s taste for drama.

Among the best-known names in the collection are El Greco, Goya and Sorolla, as well as modern masters such as Picasso, Dalí and Miró, who are represented by works that show different stages in their careers. The museum also gives attention to Asturian painters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, who painted the landscapes, coastline and mining and farming communities of the region, and so it is a place to see how the area’s own identity was expressed in art. Temporary exhibitions bring other works into the galleries during the year.

Because the museum is made up of several buildings, the route has some changes of level and atmosphere, from restored rooms with period details to bright modern galleries. The visit takes between one and two hours, depending on how much time you spend with each period. The staff and the printed guides help to follow the sequence of rooms.

The museum sits in the old quarter of Oviedo, near the Cathedral of San Salvador, with its Holy Chamber, the Plaza de Alfonso II and the lanes of the old town, so it can be fitted into a day on foot. The Jardín de Pelayo, the Torre del Reloj, the Museo de la Industria de Asturias and the Parque de San Francisco are nearby, and the pre-Romanesque church of San Julián de los Prados is a short distance out of the centre. Check the current opening times and admission before going.