Royal gallery unveiled

The £3m art house has been built in the ruins of an old church and school.

To celebrate the opening, the Queen's Gallery is mounting Scotland's biggest exhibition of the works of Leonardo da Vinci to date.

All 73 drawings and paintings come from the Royal collection.

They concentrate on his studies of anatomy and the human face.

The images are 500 years old and spend most of the time in the vaults at Windsor Castle.

The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, toured the gallery before the public was admitted.

The gallery project has been funded entirely by the Royal Collection using public admission fees for the royal residences.

The design work was done by an Edinburgh firm, Benjamin Tindall Architects.

The renovation work has transformed the former Holyrood Free Church and the Duchess of Gordon's School, both built in the 1840s.

A new, stone-arched entrance has been created at the centre of the Horse Wynd, directly opposite the new Scottish Parliament site on the Royal Mile.

The celebrated Scottish sculptress, Jill Watson, designed many of the features in the gallery.

They include the Scottish heraldic lion over the entrance and gilded hinges on the entrance doors decorated with the lion and unicorn.

The Queen's Gallery incorporates hi-tech features: in the main exhibition space computer screens give access to the Royal Collection's e-gallery.

Opening dates

A form of lighting has also been developed to give the correct colour balance at all times of the day.

The inaugural exhibition is called: Leonardo da Vinci: The Divine and the Grotesque.

It will be open to the public from 30 November until 30 March 2003. It will then transfer to the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace.

Adult tickets cost £4, over-60/Student £3, under-17 £2 and under-five, free admission.