Naval Museum of Madrid


The Museo Naval de Madrid —in English, Naval Museum of Madrid— is a national museum in Madrid, Spain. It shows the history of the Spanish Navy since the Catholic Monarchs, in the 15th century, up to the present. The displays set naval history in a wide context with information about Spanish rulers and the country's former colonies. The collections include navigation instruments, weapons, maps and paintings.

The building

Its origins date back to 1792, but it was not until 1843 when the Museum was inaugurated in Madrid. The then Spanish Naval Ministry was provided with a new headquarters in the 1920s, and the museum moved there in 1932.. The architects were José Espelius and Francisco Javier de Luque.
Visitors enter the museum through a modernist facade on the Paseo del Prado, and pass to the first floor where former courtyards are covered by spectacular stained-glass roofs with naval and decorative motifs made by Maumejean. At weekends a doorway onto the grand staircase of Navy Headquarters is opened to allow visitors to appreciate the architecture.

Collections

The map of Juan de la Cosa, the earliest preserved map of the Americas, is on permanent display in this museum.
Since 2007 the museum has hosted a specimen of moon rock. One of two such samples given to Spain, it was collected on the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. The rock, which weighs one gram, was put on display in 2009, to mark the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing.