The Museum was created in 1867 and possesses Spain’s foremost archaeology collection. Located in the Library and Museums Palace at Calle Serrano in the heart of the Salamanca district, it forms part of the Prado-Recoletos axis, where the city’s greatest cultural wealth is to be found. The original building, which dates from 1893, has undergone a far-reaching rehabilitation extending from its foundations to its roof. Its infrastructures and public accessibility have been improved, creating spaces better accommodated to today’s needs. The reform has also allowed a transformation of the permanent exhibition and an updating of the collections’ presentation. The new museum has 9,000 sq.m. of floor space displaying about 13,000 archaeological, historical and artistic pieces that cover the whole chronological development and cultural history of Spain from prehistoric times to the 19th century. It also deals with the origins of the institution itself and presents such emblematic collections as those of Egypt, the Near East, ancient Greece and numismatics.