Navarre Museum

The Navarre Museum, the Museo de Navarra, is the main museum of the region and stands on Calle Santo Domingo in Pamplona, at the edge of the old town, close to the line of the city walls. It is housed in the former Hospital of Our Lady of Mercy, a building from the sixteenth century whose Renaissance façade has been preserved and forms the entrance. Behind the carved stone doorway, the museum has been expanded with modern galleries, and the contrast between the old front and the interior gives the visit character.

The collection covers the history and art of Navarre from prehistoric times to the twentieth century, and it is arranged in chronological order. The archaeology section includes finds from the Roman town of Pompaelo, the Roman predecessor of Pamplona, with floor mosaics, sculptures and inscriptions that show how the town looked two thousand years ago. Among the most intriguing items is the Hand of Irulegi, a bronze object from an ancient settlement near Pamplona, found in 2021, which bears an inscription in an early form of the Basque language and is considered among the oldest known texts in a language related to Basque.

The medieval section holds carved capitals from the Romanesque cathedral of Pamplona, whose figures tell stories from the Bible and show the skill of the sculptors of the twelfth century, and the Leyre casket, an ivory box made in the Islamic period, which belonged to the kings of Navarre and is one of the best-known pieces of its kind. Gothic and Renaissance works include paintings, carved altarpieces, murals and religious art from churches across the region.

The fine art galleries include paintings from the Baroque period through to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The most famous canvas is a portrait by Francisco de Goya of the Marquis of San Adrián, a nobleman from Navarre, painted at the start of the nineteenth century, and it is considered one of his finest portraits. Works by local artists show the development of the region's art in later periods.

The museum sits within an easy walk of the Plaza del Castillo, the Cathedral of the Savior and the Holy Spirit, the Palacio de los Reyes de Navarra and the old city walls, La Mura, with the Parque de la Taconera nearby. It suits history and art enthusiasts, and a visit takes around two hours. Check current opening times, which vary by season.