The Museum of Pontevedra is described as one of the most important in Galicia, and situated in interesting buildings, so we decided to visit. We only visited two buildings – I subsequently found that the museum is actually spread across seven buildings in the town! Historically important old buildings are preserved and sympathetically used, where appropriate, and so history is respected and heritage preserved for future generations.
Read more: The Museum of PontevedraCastelao building
The Castelao building of the museum dates from 2004-2008 and was designed by Eduardo Pesquera and Jesús Ulargui and was built on the garden of the old Jesuit College of the city. The College buildings are next to the Church of St Bartholomew and joined to the Castelao building by a glass ‘bridge’.
The collection is vast, from pre-history to contemporary times and we only managed some of it. You cannot possibly take in a collection such as this in one visit!
The Sarmiento building
The Sarmiento building dates from the turn of the 17th century when it was built as a Jesuit College. The Jesuits were expelled in the 1760s, and after that the buildings were used for different purposes. In 1978 the building was transferred to the museum.
The Treasures of Caldas de Reis “also known as the hoard of “As Silgadas”, is to date one of the largest known hoards of gold in European prehistory. The collection consists of forty-one pieces of high-purity alluvial gold, weighing approximately 15 kg.”1 The jewellery is absolutely beautiful, and the horde was discovered by chance by farm labourers on the As Silgadas estate. It must be priceless.
Caldas de Reis sounds a fascinating place: another thermal town with prehistoric remains in the area. In addition to the horde, there are petroglyphs at Pedra de Grada. In the museum there was an example of a petroglyph.
And of course we were reminded of the Romans:
This altarpiece from Belvis is considered one of the essential pieces in the collection.
Refreshment
Well, after all that history you need a pick-me-up!
Church of San Bartholomew
The Church of San Bartholomew was the church of the Jesuit College which is now the Sarmiento building of the museum. It was dedicated to St Bartholomew when it became a parish church after the seizure by Mendizabal. The church was affected by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 which is why there are buttresses along one side of the buildings.
This interesting building was another of the churches and monasteries which are worth visiting in Pontevedra.
The Museum of Pontevedra was interesting, but demanding! My subsequent discovery that the museum includes seven historic buildings made me ponder about some of the cavalier behaviour which I see with regard to heritage and civic pride in South East London.
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