San Sebastian's municipal museum, the San Telmo showcases the cultural development of the Basque people via artefacts from everyday life and from the museum's own collection as well as those from other institutions. The museum, which was founded in 1902 but moved to its current location in 1932, is the oldest in the Basque Autonomous Community. An extensive expansion and renovation (2007-2010) was completed and opened in the spring of 2011 following years of debate over the building's profile and intended uses.

Recent years have seen a steady increase in the museum's attendance, with 2015 seeing little over 122,000 visitors. Between 60 and 200 items are borrowed each year for national and international exhibitions, attesting to the breadth and interest of its holdings.

The museum's original structure is a Dominican friary that was founded on the slopes of Mount Urgull in the middle of the 16th century with support from the Guipuzcoan nobleman Alonso de Idiáquez, Secretary of State to Emperor Charles V. Construction started in 1544 and was finished in 1562.

Despite its Gothic construction, the building's elevation features a number of Renaissance characteristics, making it a bridge between the two eras' architectural styles. The cloister, which is typically built beside the cathedral, was instead built at the foot of the building in this former convent because of space constraints caused by the mountain.

After the city of San Sebastián was looted and destroyed in 1813 during the War of Independence, the convent suffered extensive damage and lost its main altarpiece. Friars were ejected from the monastery and the building was converted into artillery barracks in 1836 as a result of the Disentailment of Mendizábal.

The structure itself, designated a National Monument in 1913, was purchased by the City Council in 1928; the cloister, however, is still legally owned by the Spanish government. It was opened in 1932 as the Museum's new home and features a Renaissance-style palazzo façade. Because of the efforts of painter Ignacio Zuloaga, the inaugural festivities included a concert conducted by Manuel de Falla. As soon as the church was converted into a meeting hall, murals by Catalan artist Josep Maria Sert were painted on its walls, depicting allegorical scenes from Basque mythology.

A total makeover of the museum and an addition that blends into the hillside were completed in 2011 at a cost of 28.5 million euros. Nieto and Sobejano, architects, designed it.

San Telmo now houses the entirety of the collection amassed for a Museum of Ethnography and Fine Arts beginning in 1902 at the behest of the Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del Pas. The museum's first location was at the intersection of Garibai and Andia streets; in 1909, it was relocated to a building on Urdaneta street, where it remained until its final shift to its current location in San Telmo.

There are basement, main, and upper levels of the Museum. Church, lower cloister (with archaeology portion), two big halls for temporary exhibitions, restrooms, and entrances may all be found on the ground floor. There is a gallery featuring the works of Basque artists and an ethnographic collection on the ground floor (works from the 19th century to the present day). Throughout the first floor are examples of antique European and Spanish painting.

Except for the cloister, which belongs to the State, San Telmo is owned by the San Sebastian City Council.
Out of Egypt and into Oteiza

The Museum houses a wide variety of collections, including those from the fine arts, archaeology, and ethnography. The Basque Country's are the shortest but most instructive. Things discovered in Gipuzkoa date back to Roman times, and they are intermixed with 19th-century ceramics, textiles, and books. Among the various items on show is an authentic 18th century outfit, a copy of Diderot's Encyclopaedia from the time period, and artefacts from the metallurgical and whaling industries. More than forty of the latter were featured in an exhibition called Frivolité that ran in the summer of 2014 and was donated to the Basque Museum in Bilbao in 2017.

The museum features a sword that, according to legend, belonged to Boabdil, and artefacts from Egypt and pre-Columbian America, all thanks to donations from private collectors.

The quality of the fine arts department varies; while it is particularly strong in 19th and 20th century Basque painting, it is inconsistent for older time periods. There are three paintings by El Greco's contemporaries (including a Christ or Saint Francis) and one by Navarrete el Mudo and one by Tintoretto's circle from the 16th century. Other artists represented in the collection include Rubens, Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, Luca Giordano, Hubert Robert, a portrait by Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié, and a work by Nicolas de Largillière. The landscape credited to Ignacio de Iriarte, the first artist of Basque heritage to acquire distinction, who lived and worked in Seville during the time of Murillo, is noteworthy, as is Corot's View of Rome. Artists from the 19th century include Federico and Raimundo de Madrazo, Antonio Ortiz Echagüe, Joaqun Sorolla's oil paintings and sketches, and Mariano Fortuny (with one of his famous Portici kid nudes). San Telmo has been displaying paintings from the Prado Museum in Madrid on loan (such as Patio de un parador, a three-meter canvas by Elena Brockmann [1]) from its inception, and it has since been joined by works from the Reina Sofa Museum and other public and private collections.

Notable figures in Basque art include Ignacio Zuloaga, Rafael Ruiz Balerdi (Portrait of Chumy Chmez), Vitxori Sanz, Juan Luis Goenaga, Vicente Ameztoy, Nicolás de Lekuona, and Nicolás de Lekuona. On loan from the Oteiza Museum in Alzuza are a number of Jorge Oteiza's artworks.

Paintings by prominent Basque artists like José Echenagusa, Eduardo Zamacois, and José Luis Zumeta, as well as consumer and everyday objects connected to organisations and institutions in the region, were added to the collections at the same time as the renovations to bolster their repertoire. There are home appliances, a Seat 600 automobile, textiles, and skateboards from the Sancheski brand of Irn, as well as posters produced in Guipzcoa and tokens from the ancient San Sebastián Casino. The museum becomes accessible to those interested in industrial art and design in this way.

The paintings by Josep Maria Sert, painted especially for the San Telmo church by the artist in the 1930s, deserve special attention. What results is a scenography in which pictures are periodically projected onto big canvases affixed to the walls of this structure, which has been recently renovated.