Victoria & Albert Museum

Description

The origin of the Victoria and Albert Museum dates back to the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in London. For this event, the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park was built to house a wide variety of manufactured objects from around the world. The success of the exhibition motivated Prince Albert to promote and found a museum dedicated to art and science education. Numerous objects were acquired to form the basis of the museum, which was inaugurated in 1852 at Marlborough House. Just two years later the museum had become too small, so they decided to acquire a 34-hectare estate in South Kensington. The architects faced numerous problems in accommodating all the works in the building, which delayed the project. However, in May 1899 Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone. Finally, on June 26, 1909, the museum was inaugurated. The Victoria & Albert Museum houses a large number of pieces from Castilla y León. Among them are: the grille of the cathedral of Avila, a textile fragment from the tomb of the Infante Don Felipe in Villalcázar de Sirga (Palencia), a saint by Alonso Berruguetethat was originally in the Monastery of San Benito el Real (Valladolid) or the Pietà by Juan de Juni (Valladolid).