Bishop Auckland is very fortunate that the philanthropist Jonathan Ruffer has elected to invest heavily in the historic and cultural heritage of the town and to enhance that heritage by the addition of new facilities. 2022 saw the completion and opening of the new Spanish Gallery created with great skill from the former Bishop Barrington School and Barclays Bank and we were fortunate enough to be one of the first groups to enjoy a Curator led visit. The gallery houses the largest collection of Spanish religious art outside London and our expert guides provided invaluable insight into the collection. We progressed from the ground floor where there is an animated interpretation of Goya’s ‘Las Meninas’, to the first and second floor with works from the 16^th and 17th centuries by Velazquez, Murillo and El Greco. We were particularly fortunate that our visit coincided with the showing of Salvadore Dali’s 1951 painting ‘Christ of St. John of the Cross’, on loan from the Kelvingrove Gallery in Glasgow. The painting was displayed alongside El Greco’s ‘Christ on the Cross’ painted between 1600 and 1610 to allow and encourage comparison of these works painted 350 years apart.