Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery

One of the city's most famous landmarks, Norwich Castle was built by the Normans as a Royal Palace 900 years ago.
Now a museum and art gallery, the Castle is packed with treasures to inspire and intrigue visitors of all ages.

The entire collection of this museum is a Designated Collection of national importance.

Additional info

Video presentation introducing the Castle with audio visual tour of dungeons and battlements.

Norwich Castle is home to some of the most outstanding collections of fine art, archaeology and natural history. The entire collections held at Norwich Castle are Designated Collections of national importance.

Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery reflects the importance of the city, one of England's richest and largest settlements from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. Some of the displays are in the magnificent Norman Keep, which was built as a royal castle, the most ambitious secular building of its generation in Western Europe.

The museum has comprehensive collections of the Norwich School of Artists, 18th century Lowestoft porcelain and a world-beating assemblage of nearly 3000 British teapots. Prominent amongst the collections are birds and butterflies from around the world, and Britain's biggest, oldest and most complete fossil elephant.

There is outstanding Bronze Age and Anglo-Saxon archaeology and much of the Snettisham Treasure, the largest collection of Iron Age gold neck rings from Europe. The museum reopened in 2001, following an £11.7 million development funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. There is now better access to the collections at the new Castle Museum Study Centre, which is linked to the Castle.

Collection details

Weapons and War, Natural Sciences, Fine Art, Decorative and Applied Art, Coins and Medals, Archives, Archaeology

Key artists and exhibits

• Designated Collection.