The Martorell Exhibition Centre was the first building built as a public museum in Barcelona and Catalonia. It opened its doors as a Martorell Museum in 1882 thanks to the legacy of the antiquities and naturalist Francesc Martorell i Pe·a, who when he died ceded his collections to the city, as well as an economic endowment for the construction of the museum. In 1924 it became the Geology Museum, as the zoological and botanical collections it contained were moved to the neighboring Castle of the Three Dragons.