The capital of Spain, Madrid, offers many excellent art museums. Few cities in the World have such a wide range of museums like Madrid, and Madrid is arguably the city in Spain with the greatest concentration of works of art.
Wherever you are in Madrid, you will be close to an impressive art collection. Fire of the city's major museums are all located around Paseo del Prado at the Retiro Park. There are no less than 4 of Spain's largest and most important museums: Prado, Reina Sofía, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Caixa Forum.
One of the world's best museums with an art collection that can breathe the most: the museum's collection includes more than 7,500 oil paintings, 1,000 sculptures. The art museum focuses on the period 12 - early 20th century and has a huge collection of classic masterpieces, with special emphasis on the Spanish Golden Age. The permanent collection is huge, but we recommend focusing on works by Goya, El Greco and Velázquez. One of the absolute main works is Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez from 1656.
If you want to find a restaurant close to the museum, we recommend eating in the museum quarter on the street Jaun de Mena or Montalbán. If you are a group, we can help reserve a lunch or dinner.
The museum's undisputed masterpiece is Pablo Picasso's Guernika. The famous work of art was painted during the Spanish Civil War after Franco's troops bombed the Basque city of Guernika in Northern Spain. It turned into the painting Guernika, which shows the horrors of the Civil War. In addition to Guernika, you will find a unique collection of works of 20th century artists such as Antoni Tàpies, José Solana and Luis Gordillo, George Braque, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and Juan Gris.
The museum also offers spectacular architecture. In 2001, construction began on a new offering designed by French star architect Jean Nouvel. This extension of more than 50,000 m2 was inaugurated in 2005. The main building and the museum's original building were designed by the architects José de Hermosilla and Francisco Sabatini.
Another amazing art museum at Paseo del Prado. The museum has approx. a million annual visitors. Thyssen-Bornemisza focuses first and foremost on Renaissance art as well as the 19th and 20th centuries.
Among the main works are works by Titian, Tintoretto, Lucas Cranach, Caravaggio, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, George Braque, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and George Grosz.
A nicely sized museum at Paseo del Prado, close to the Atocha station. The museum is free to customers of the Spanish bank Caixabank, and otherwise costs only € 4.
If you have not wanted to see art in Madrid, you can pick up, because outside of Madrid's city limits you will find a large number of other museums and churches with large art treasures.
The Royal Palace also has a beautiful art collection with works by, among others. Caravaggio, Goya and Velázquez. And at the same time you can experience the royal comforts and the many hundreds of rooms. The Royal Palace of Madrid is located on top of the Arab fortress of Alcázar by the small town of Magerit, built in the 9th century by Muhammad I of Córdoba.
The entrance costs 11 €.
Goya's work is scattered around many museums and churches in Madrid. You will find his works of art not only in the big museums like El Prado, but also in several smaller venues and museums. The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (the Fine Arts School of San Fernando, located on Calle de Alcalá, 13, 28014 Madrid) was founded by King Ferdinand VI in 1744 (just two years before Goya was born) and Goya worked for his son Carlos III. Here you will find several of Goya's masterpieces.
Another museum is the Lázaro Galdiano Museum less than 3km from El Prado and the church Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida in the western part of Madrid.
We recommend visiting Toledo, where you can experience El Greco's art at several of the city's museums and in a number of historic churches. Count Orgaz Funeral in particular is a major work that you must not forget to experience in Toledo.
We highly recommend a visit to the Royal Palace Escorial north of Madrid. Here you will find monumental architecture and a fine art collection, especially with oil paintings by the Spanish, Italian and Flemish golden age painters, including El Bosco, Tizian, van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Tintoretto.
