The British Royal Family owns an extensive collection of over one million pieces of art, books and prints known as the Royal Collection. Many of them are displayed at Buckingham Palace in London, at Windsor Castle and about a dozen royal residences including this one adjacent to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. They are housed in the former Holyrood Free Church built in the 1840s. This art gallery was opened in 2002 by Queen Elizabeth. Above the lettering for the Queen’s Gallery is a red lion designed by Jill Watson. This heraldic symbol is patterned after the one on the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots.
