Since 1948, the Museum has been located in the architectural complex of San Domenico, whose construction began with the foundation of the Dominican order in 1233.
At the end of the sixteenth century the large cloister was completed and the porticoed floor was added. A few years later the oratory of the confraternity was built, a large vaulted and richly frescoed room.
During the Napoleonic occupation, the convent was transformed into a military barracks; with the Restoration it was returned to the friars. The state ownership of ecclesiastical property, after the Unification of Italy, handed the complex over to the military authority, which adapted it to its own needs, disrupting its use. This use would last almost a century. In 1957, the collections of the Civic Museums, scattered in various locations, were brought together here by Umberto Calzoni after a long bureaucratic ordeal, and became state property. The National Archaeological Museum of Umbria was born.