The museum's focus is on the History of the Palatinate; it has a collection of about 1 million artifacts, the oldest being an approximately 190,000-year-old hand axe.

The museum was established in 1869 and the collections of the Historical Society of the Palatinate, the former Rhine District, and the City of Speyer were combined.

The building at the present site was built in 1910 by architect Gabriel von Seidl; a modern annex was added in 1990.

[2] Over 1,000 pieces of silver, bronze, brass and iron (weapons, tools, coins, tableware, kitchenware etc.

)., weighing more than 700 kg, sunk in the waters of the Rhine 1,700 years ago, the largest Roman-era trove of metals found in Europe, dug up in a gravel quarry near Neupotz, 30 km south of Speyer.