he Banco de España Photographic Archive was created in 2019 as the result of a project to organise and showcase the Historical Archive. As part of the project, a body of largely overlooked and hitherto scattered photographs was identified, organised and brought to light.
The collection brings together the institution’s visual heritage spanning 150 years of photography and contains more than 25,000 items. Originally, these images formed part of administrative records documenting activities such as building works, selection of sites and potential headquarters, urban studies, staff identification, swearing-in ceremonies and the organisation of events, receptions and meetings. As a result, they ended up scattered across different categories and series throughout the Archive.
Although they are now stored together for technical and preservation purposes, they retain their documentary link to their original files, forming an integral part of the Bank’s heritage.
As part of the project launched in 2019, and with the aim of cataloguing and disseminating this collection, the catalogue entitled Archivo Fotográfico Banco de España, 1874-2023 was published in both print 
(59 MB) print and online
formats. Both editions include more than 500 photographs by over 120 photographers, offering 150-year visual history of the Banco de España and Spain itself.