The Museo Nacional de San Gregorio (National Museum of Sculpture) is a museum in Valladolid, Spain, belonging to the Spanish Ministry of Culture. The museum has an extensive collection sculptural ranging from the Middle Ages to the 19th century from Region of Castile’s churches that, at 19th-20th c., these were confiscated, and other particular donations, deposits or acquisitions of the state.
The museum was founded as the Provincial Museum of Fine Arts on 4 October 1842. It had its first headquarters at the Palacio de Santa Cruz. On 29 April 1933 it was moved to the Colegio de San Gregorio. Other current seats are in the 16th-century Palacio de Villena and Palacio del Conde de Gondomar
The museum houses works from the 13th to 19th centuries, executed mostly in the Central Spain, and also in other regions historically connected to Spain (Italy, Flanders, Southern America). Artworks include, among the others, a Raising of the Cross by Francisco del Rincon, I Thirst, and The Way of Calvary Gregorio Fernández, Adoration of the Magi by Alonso Berruguete, Lamentation of Christ by Juan de Juni, Penitent Magdalene by Pedro de Mena or the Holy Sepulchre or passage of the Sleepers Alonso de Rozas.
During the Holy Week in Valladolid the museum gives 104 images (distributed in the corresponding pasos) to the processions for the brotherhoods.
The collection is exposed in the St. Gregory College itself, a beautiful example of fifteenth century architecture, famous for the richness and originality of its decoration, as well as its importance in Spanish history. Temporary exhibitions and the Museum’s activities are conducted in the neighbouring Villena Palace which houses permanently the famous Neapolitan crib. The remodelling underwent by this splendid building and the modernization of its facilities makes it one of the best museums of its kind in Europe. The collection has a unique personality for its specialisation in polychrome wood sculpture. It contains reredoses, reliefs, stalls and procession floats, as well as a magnificent set of rafters, built between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Along with the great masters such as Berruguete, Juan de Juni, Gregorio Fernández and Pedro de Mena, there are many other Spanish and foreign artists that evidence the great splendour of our history of art.
