The Hortensia Herrero Art Center is located in the old Valeriola Palace, a central and emblematic 17th century building that has served multiple uses over the years and undergone several interventions, falling finally into disuse over the past decades.

The new museum will house the valuable private collection of patron Hortensia Herrero, which includes works by renowned artists such as Andreas Gursky, Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz, Anish Kapoor, and Mat Collishaw, among others. The museum also plans to accommodate exhibitions by international artists, some of whom have designed works for specific spots of the building, establishing an ongoing dialogue between art and architecture.

The refurbishment has lasted five years, during which a multidisciplinary team of architects, restorers, archaeologists, artisans, and specialists have worked to adapt the building to its new use.

The exhibition area is organized in four levels and around two volumes. On one hand, Valeriola Palace, which has undergone an exhaustive refurbishment process. On the other, the volume on San Cristóbal street – of which only the facade and sloping roof are maintained –, and which has allowed extending the exhibition area up to 3,500 square meters. Both are connected by a building-footbridge located in the outdoor courtyard.

One of the main challenges of the project has been to design a continuous itinerary that offers a comfortable and pleasant experience for visitors and allows them to navigate through the space with ease. This path is an ascending one in the volume of the palace and descending in that of San Cristóbal street. The main entrance is located in the Valeriola Palace, and leads to the interior courtyard around which the different exhibition halls are organized. This courtyard preserves its original structure and heritage elements like the carved stone stairway. On the upper levels, and as one ascends, visitors will be able to enjoy the different spaces of the old palace all the way up to the top floor, where a lookout space offers extraordinary views of the city. The garden is set out as another room where greenery and water coexist; and the basement treasures the remains of the old Roman circus, found during the archaeological excavations.

Respectful and sensitive towards history and heritage, the Hortensia Herrero Art Center is a new museum that intends to share the most relevant contemporary art on an international level and to become a cultural and artistic landmark open to the city and to society. 

Foto: ERRE arquitectura

Foto: ERRE arquitectura