The new museum space proposes a balanced tour of the naval history of Spain, and of the victories and defeats of its Navy. The opening event was also attended by the Secretary of State for Defense, Esperanza Casteleiro; the Chief of Staff of the Defence, General of Aire Miguel Ángel Villarroya; the Assistant Secretary of Defense, María Amparo Valcarce, and the Secretary General of Defence Policy, Admiral Juan Francisco Martínez Nuñez, among other civil and military authorities (Photo MDE).

The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, today opened the new Naval Museum of Madrid, the prime exponent of the Navy to spread the great milestones and characters of Spanish naval history and to promote the Culture of Defense among the public.

The remodeling of the Naval Museum has required more than two years of work and has focused mainly on improving access to the facilities, redistributing the spaces and reorganizing and preserving the collections.

The new project has reconsidered the path of the permanent exhibition to convey its contents to the public in a clearer way. Now, he does a thorough chronological review of Spanish naval history, from the end of the Middle Ages to the present day to make known the Navy's contribution to the world's social, cultural, economic, military and scientific progress.

The six rooms of the Naval Museum exhibit the 3,000 most relevant pieces of its funds, which summarize the very essence of the Navy. The Letter of John of the Thing (1500), an astronomical compendium of Philip II (1596), the pocket watch of Casto Méndez Núñez, the models of ships or their cartographic backgrounds are some of the most remarkable pieces of the collection.

The Naval Museum of Madrid was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1843 and had various headquarters until it was located in 1932 in its current location, the Navy headquarters. The bases of the Naval Museum are composed of more than 12,000 pieces that reflect the history of the Navy as an institution and, among them, include ceramic pieces, scientific instruments, weapons, coins, artistic pieces or its bibliographic resources. Also, its collections of ship models and cartography are one of the most valued.