Museum of the Colosseum

Museum of the Royal Coliseum of Carlos III

The Museum of the Royal Coliseum of Carlos III in San Lorenzo de El Escorial is the oldest remaining roofed theatre museum in Spain, and was declared a Site of Cultural Interest in 1995.

The museum covers 250 years (1770-2020) of history, including both the building and its rich and varied artistic and musical life over the course of its long-standing existence.

It is housed in the areas that make up the Comedians’ Residence behind the Coliseum itself, alongside the stage and the entrance on Plaza de Jacinto Benavente.

The museum features an original and varied display of original decorative elements and furniture from the Coliseum, models, photographs, oil paintings and watercolours, set designs, figurines, staging, sculptures, costumes, musical instruments, theatrical machinery, antique radios, records, tuners, conductors’ batons, metronomes, artistic documents, posters, programmes, books, musical scores and all manner of mementos from the artistic and personal world of the performers who have graced the stage of the Coliseum over the course of two and a half centuries, along with a reminder of other contemporaries.