In 1932 the Provincial Council of Lugo created the museum in order to collect and protect the patrimony of the province, which were spread in individual collections and public institutions. At first, the museum would be located in the Palacio Provincial de San Marcos. In 1957 the museum is moved to the present location, the rooms of the old San Francisco convents and a new building designed by the architect Manuel Gómez Román. From this moment on, the museum enjoyed several extensions.
The first floor houses a collection of tiles from the 3rd century, found in a plot in Armañá Street (Lugo). It also presents the collections of sacred art, including a stone image of the Saviour coming from San Pedro de Fiz de Muxa (Lugo), a wide range of Gothic Mannerist and Baroque imagery, the processional crosses made of silver and other objects for religious purposes. In the cloister, the visitor can behold pieces of epigraphy, heraldry and other collections in stone. The convent kitchen of this floor shows the etnographic funds, next to the refectory.
The high part of the cloister is devoted to Prehistory and Archaeology. The visitor will find a chronological tour from the Palaeolithic to the end of Romanisation, as well as the ceramics, glass, numismatic and medals collections.
On the second floor the visitor will enjoy the Galician art collections, focused in painting and sculpture from the 19th and 20th century with monographic halls dedicated to Antonio Fernández, Julia Minguillón and Corredoira, along with the ceramic collection from Sargadelos - which is a separate hall hosting pieces from all periods of production of the Real Fábrica.
In 2010, the first floor of the new building (opened in 1997) was restored, allowing space for Galician drawings and engravings sections. The halls are monographic for Castelao, Prieto Nespereira and Castro Gil, maintaining the chandelier collection.
References:The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.
The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick.