National Museum of Performing Arts

The National Museum of Performing Arts, known in Spanish as the Museo Nacional de Artes Escénicas and formerly as the Museo Nacional del Teatro, is one of Spain's national museums, located in Almagro in the province of Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha. Devoted to the promotion and preservation of Spanish theatrical and performing arts heritage, it operates under the Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y de la Música (INAEM), which is dependent on the Ministry of Culture. The museum's relocation to Almagro in 1990 was motivated by the town's status as home to the Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico and its historic Corral de comedias.

The institution traces its origins to November 1919, when Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts José del Prado Palacio created the Museo-Archivo Teatral, appointing Luis París, director of Madrid's Teatro Real, as its head. Two rooms in the Teatro Real were fitted out in 1924 to display part of a theatrical archive that had been forming since 1850. After the Spanish Civil War, the deteriorating condition of the Teatro Real forced a provisional move to Ruíz de Alarcón street in Madrid. The collections subsequently shifted through multiple locations: the basement of the Museo Romántico in 1951, the former Hospital General (now Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía) in 1972, and the former Museo Nacional de Arte Contemporáneo in Madrid's Ciudad Universitaria in 1987. The museum joined Spain's National Museum Plan in 1968 and was attached to the Dirección General de Música y Teatro in 1980. In 1990, director general of Fine Arts Jaime Brihuega and INAEM director general Adolfo Marsillach authorised the urgent transfer to Almagro. The new building was inaugurated by the King and Queen of Spain on 4 February 2004. In 2024, the institution was renamed Museo Nacional de Artes Escénicas to reflect its broader scope beyond theatre alone.

The museum holds an extensive collection devoted to Spanish performing arts heritage. Its holdings encompass scenic designs and scale models, costumes and costume designs, puppets, drawings, printmakings, paintings, sculptures, photographs, music recordings, programmes, and documents from various Spanish theatres. The collections expanded significantly after the move to Almagro. In 1991, the museum received all the scenography and figurine holdings from the former Teatros Nacionales collection, along with donations from figures and families including José Tamayo, Núria Espert, the Burmann family, the family of Victorina Durán, the heirs of José Luis Alonso, Carlos Cytrynowski, and Gregorio Martínez Sierra-Catalina Bárcena. Works were also deposited from the Museo del Prado and the cofradía de comediantes de la Virgenes de la Novena. The INAEM has subsequently acquired at public auction significant paintings, drawings, engravings, and scenographic sketches, including important lots from the estate of dancer and choreographer Antonio Ruiz Soler, scenographic sketches for the Teatro Real, and portraits of actors Julián Romea by Antonio María Esquivel and María Guerrero by Anselmo Miguel Nieto.

Among the museum's notable acquisitions are the collections from the estate of Antonio Ruiz Soler, known as Antonio, the celebrated Spanish dancer and choreographer. The portrait of actor Julián Romea by Antonio María Esquivel and the portrait of actress María Guerrero by Anselmo Miguel Nieto represent significant works of theatrical portraiture. The museum also holds scenographic sketches created for the Teatro Real. These holdings complement the extensive archive of scenic designs, figurines, and costume materials that document the history of Spanish theatrical production.

The museum occupies the Palacios de los Maestres de Calatrava, situated north of Almagro's Plaza Mayor. Originally constructed in the mid-medieval period as residence for the lay brothers and knights of the Order of Calatrava and seat of the Grand Master, the complex served multiple functions: conventual residence, political seat, and administrative centre of the Calatrava mastership. In the sixteenth century it became the residence of Almagro's governor; in the eighteenth century it served as a cavalry barracks and suffered a fire that left only the courtyard and some dependencies. In 1802, the Calatrava friars relocated from their castle-convent of Calatrava la Nueva, and part of the palaces became the order's new priory convent until 1816, when the friars moved to the convent of the Asunción. Following disentailment, the building passed to private hands, was dismantled, and later housed various commercial operations before its rehabilitation. From the original design, the great corner tower built in rubble masonry with brick courses and the magnificent arched central courtyard with horseshoe arches in brick, framed with an alfiz and supported on small columns on the north side and square stone pillars on the east and west sides, have been preserved. One gallery retains fifteenth-century polychrome wooden ceiling panels with heraldic decoration. The rehabilitation was designed by architect Horacio Fernández del Castillo. The museum occupies 2,213.68 square metres across three levels, with exhibition halls on all three floors, a library, basement and mezzanine storage, offices on the upper floor and tower, and a Mudéjar cloister for temporary exhibitions and recitals.

The National Museum of Performing Arts is located in Almagro, Ciudad Real, in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Its official website is https://museoteatro.mcu.es/. The museum is one of Spain's national museums and is managed by the Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y de la Música (INAEM), under the Ministry of Culture. The building's Mudéjar cloister serves as a space for temporary exhibitions and recitals, complementing the permanent galleries distributed across three floors.