{"id":2775,"date":"2014-11-12T12:04:33","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T12:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spainexchange.com\/?p=2775"},"modified":"2026-10-09T14:06:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T14:06:38","slug":"museum-contemporary-art-toledo-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spainexchange.com\/articles\/museum-contemporary-art-toledo-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Museum of Contemporary Art, Toledo, Spain: Closed, and Where to See Modern Art Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toledo’s Museo de Arte Contempor\u00e1neo, which opened in 1975 in the Casa de las Cadenas in the Jewish Quarter, is closed and cannot be visited. This post explains what the museum was, what can still be seen of its building from the street, and where modern and contemporary art is on show in Toledo in 2026, with opening hours and prices.<\/p>\n

The former museum in the Casa de las Cadenas<\/h2>\n

The museum occupied the Casa de las Cadenas (House of Chains) in Calle de las Bulas. The city council bought the house in 1962. In 1973 it was handed over to the national fine arts administration, and in 1975 it opened as the Museum of Contemporary Art. Its best-known rooms were given to the sculptor Alberto S\u00e1nchez, who was born in Toledo and whose family donated most of the works now on show in Toledo to the Spanish state.<\/p>\n

The museum closed its doors in 2001. The works by Alberto S\u00e1nchez were moved to the storerooms of the Museo de Santa Cruz, which remained responsible for them. The regional heritage catalogue states that the building is now waiting for the city council to give it a new use, so there are no opening hours and no tickets.<\/p>\n

The building<\/h2>\n

The Casa de las Cadenas is still worth a look from outside when walking through the Jewish Quarter<\/a>. It is a typical Toledan house of the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century in the Mud\u00e9jar-Plateresque style, with walls of stone and brick. The name comes from the chains on its front. According to the regional catalogue they once hung in the entrance hall and stood for the owners’ right to grant asylum.<\/p>\n

The plan is irregular because of the shape of the plot. The rooms are set around a central courtyard with wooden galleries, four on the first floor and two on the second. Inside, some roof beams keep their old painted decoration, and doors and windows are framed with Mud\u00e9jar plasterwork. From the end of the eighteenth century until the council bought it, the house was divided into dwellings for several families.<\/p>\n

Where to see modern art now: CORPO<\/h2>\n

The main place for modern and contemporary art in Toledo today is the Colecci\u00f3n Roberto Polo. Centro de Arte Moderno y Contempor\u00e1neo de Castilla-La Mancha, known as CORPO. The regional government opened it on 27 March 2019 in the former convent of Santa Fe, at Paseo del Miradero 1, close to Plaza de Zocodover and the Museo de Santa Cruz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The display follows the development of art from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present. It covers about 8,000 square metres in 12 rooms, plus older parts of the building such as the Capilla de Bel\u00e9n and the church of Santiago. According to the centre, the permanent collection in Toledo brings together works by 171 artists. It is strong in the avant-garde movements of northern, central and eastern Europe, with names such as Kandinsky, Schwitters, Moholy-Nagy and Max Ernst, and continues with European and American art made since 1945. The entrance courtyard holds a sculpture garden of 2,000 square metres with pieces by Jorge Oteiza and Miquel Navarro, among others.<\/p>\n

The link with the old museum is direct. Since 28 February 2023 a room in the former sacristy of the convent has shown 22 works by Alberto S\u00e1nchez that belong to the Museo de Santa Cruz: thirteen drawings and nine sculptures dated between 1926 and 1962. Among them are La mujer de la estrella<\/em> and Maternidad<\/em>, which had not been on public view in the city since the museum in the Casa de las Cadenas closed.<\/p>\n