The building, which was supposed to be a simple jail but eventually became a courthouse with courts, prisons and a small shelter for the guards, was completed in 1880.

A century later, the city council considered demolishing the building to create a leafy square in its place, but after a strong rejection of this new project by the architect Alvaro Siza Vieira and Javier Sainz de Oinza and the History Professor From Madrid High School, Pedro Navascués Palacio, this idea was abandoned.

On 6 October 1990, the Directorate General of Heritage of the Galician regional government declared the building as a Cultural Property.

In 1995, a new cultural project with the objective of rehabilitating the building and transforming it into a contemporary art museum was approved.

The work was commissioned to a team of architects formed by Salvador Fraga Rivas, Francisco Javier García-Quijada Romero y Manuel Portolés Sanjuán.