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 Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.