Museo de Jaén, Spain

The Jaen Museum (formerly Jaén Provincial Museum) is headquartered in the city of Jaén, Spain. It is composed of two permanent exhibitions, one of Fine Arts and another of Archeology, also hosting different temporary exhibitions.

The building has two permanent sections, Archeology and Fine Arts. The Archeology section is on the ground floor, while the upper floor is dedicated to permanent exhibitions of Fine Arts.

The Museum of Jaén has its origins in the Museum of Paintings founded in 1846 with works confiscated from religious orders as a result of the Mendizábal Disentailment. In 1914 the Jaén Provincial Museum of Fine Arts was established. For its emplacement, the local politician, José del Prado y Palacio backed the acquisition of a 4,200-square-metre plot of land on the Paseo de la Estación.

History
The Provincial Museum of Jaén has its origin in the Museum of Painting (1846), based in the Convent of the Society of Jesus. The works that were shown in this museum came from the confiscation of Mendizábal. In 1914 the museum was renamed the Provincial Museum of Fine Arts, with its headquarters in the Palacio de la Diputación de Jaén. The director at that time was Alfredo Cazabán Laguna.

In 1920 the Jiennense politician José del Prado y Palacio promoted the construction of a new headquarters on lands acquired in the Paseo de la Estación; the architect in charge of the work was Antonio Flórez Urdapilleta, son of Justino Flórez Llamas.

In 1969 the Provincial Museum of Fine Arts was merged with the Archaeological Museum (founded in 1963 at the request of the Institute of Studies of the Provincial Government of Gienne), giving rise to the Provincial Museum of Jaén, state owned and managed by the Ministry of Culture of the Junta de Andalucía. Since that year the institution took charge of the conservation and custody of several heritage collections of the province of Jaén.

In 1969, the present-day Museum of Jaén was created by merging the Fine Arts Museum with the Provincial Archaeological Museum established in 1963. It opened its doors in its current location in 1971. The museum is owned by the state and managed by the Junta de Andalucía.

Building
The main building, work of Antonio Flórez, is located offering a facade to the Paseo de la Estación, located on a horizontal platform with respect to the level of the street, saved by two flights of stairs. Of regionalistic type and realized in ashlar masonry of stone, is of square plant with three heights (ground floor, entreplanta and second plant) and with four towers in its vertices. The building is exempt and surrounded by a small garden. The main façade incorporates the old façade of the former Pósito de Labradores, the work of Francisco del Castillo el Viejo (1548); and in the old inner courtyard (roofed today) is the Renaissance façade of the former Church of San Miguel, attributed to Andrés de Vandelvira. In that same patio the sculptural set of Cortijo del Pajarillo (Huelma), from the Iberian period, is exhibited.

Collections
The building has two permanent sections, Archeology and Fine Arts. The Archeology section is on the ground floor, while the upper floor is dedicated to the permanent exhibitions of Fine Arts.

The Archeology section consists of seven rooms and two mezzanines. You can take a tour through the history of the province from prehistoric times to the hispanomusulmana era through the different collections of pottery and metal, sculptures and jewels of these times. It also highlights the collection of Roman mosaics, a 1: 1 scale reproduction of the burial chamber of Toya, several Roman tombstones with inscriptions and the Paleo-Christian sarcophagus of Martos.

The Fine Arts section has nine rooms: the first two houses works from the 13th to the 18th century, while the rest are dedicated to the 19th and 20th centuries. The works are of different pictorial styles, paying special attention to authors from the province of Jaén such as Manuel Ángeles Ortiz or the most recent Manuel Kayser Zapata, who enjoy great representation. It also houses works by Fausto Olivares Palacios, José Nogué Massó, Antonio López García, Rafael Zabaleta Fuentes and Federico Madrazo, among other authors.

The facilities of the Museum have two annex buildings, made by Luis Berges Roldán from 1965 following the popular architecture of Jaén. The one located to the west of the main building, offering a façade to Cristo Rey Street, is the administrative building, where offices, laboratories and warehouses are located. The one located to the north serves to lodge temporary exhibitions in the low and first plants; In the basement there is a permanent exhibition corresponding to the sculptures of Porcuna, from the Iberian period.

Access and schedules
Access to the Museum of Jaén is free for all citizens of the European Union; for the rest of visitors, the access price is € 1.50. Its regular opening hours are from 9 a.m. to 20 p.m. (Tuesday to Saturday) and from 9 a.m. to 15 p.m. (Sundays and holidays). On Mondays it remains closed to the public. The schedule for investigators is from 9 to 14 hours, from Monday to Friday.