Madrid is a city deeply influenced by all kinds of artistic events. From the rich and inexhaustible Royal and religious collections, exhibited in several major museums and churches of the city, to the most contemporary and risky proposals of the new centers dedicated to emerging artists. But the visitor won’t only find art in museums, during its stay in the city, it will be assailed by all kinds of street performers: musicians, painters, jugglers, poets and sensitive souls in general, which will adorn and put soundtrack to its days in Madrid. Here is a selection of the major museums and cultural centers, in order to help you choose from the wide range available.

El Prado National Museum

The Prado is the result of the art collector fondness of the ruling dynasties in Spain over the centuries. Its opening follows the trail of other similar in Europe, such as the Louvre Museum. With some of the best masterpieces of artists like Bosch, Velazquez, Rubens and Goya, today, few experts would deny that the Prado is the most important museum in the world in European painting.

National Museum and Art Center Reina Sofía

It is the National Museum of Contemporary Art. The Queen, as it is popularly known, preserves and exhibits works by the most important artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including Spanish painters such as Picasso, Dali and Miró and international, such as René Magritte, Georges Braque, Robert Delaunay or Marth Rothko, to mention just a few. Opened in 1986, the current institution occupies the Sabatini building, the old General Hospital of Madrid, plus an avant-garde extension by architect Jean Nouvel, opened in 2005.

  • Opening times: Monday 10:00-21:00, Tuesday closed, Wednesday-Saturday 10:00-21:00, Sundays and holidays 10:00-19:00 (some areas might remain closed from 14:00)
  • Ticket: General Admission: 8€
  • Web: http://www.museoreinasofia.es/en

Museo Thyssen Bornemisza

The third vertex of the known as Madrid's Art Triangle, which includes two other famous museums, the Reina Sofia and the Prado Museum. The Thyssen museum is the most valuable core of the private art collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza family, exhibited and open to the public through an agreement reached in 1988 between this family and the Spanish Government. In this museum, we can see masterpieces ranging from the fourteenth to the twentieth century, including many works by artists and periods that are absent in the collections of the Prado and the Reina Sofia.

Matadero

Matadero is a cinema, a contemporary art center, the home of the reader, a design center, music venues, theaters and basically everything you want to find in a center dedicated to the creation, performance and dissemination of contemporary art. Using the old set of 48 buildings used as Madrid’s slaughterhouse and Municipal cattle market, the center reopened after a deep reform in March 2006. Since then, it has become one of the major leisure and cultural points for art lovers in all its forms. Reach it strolling by the river, and enjoy its magnificent terraces and cafes to relax and unwind between activities.

Lázaro Galdiano Museum

A museum for collecting. This is the definition for this ancient palace that opened its doors to the public for the first time in 1951 at the express wish of its owner, Jose Lazaro Galdiano, who thus wanted to bring out his collection of pieces of art for the education and enjoyment of future generations. The collection hosts painting masterpieces by artists such as Velázquez, Bosch, Goya and El Greco, as well as countless sculptures, ivories and miniatures, among many other pieces that invite the viewer to enjoy a warm and elegant space .

Sorolla Museum

The Valencian artist Joaquin Sorolla, one of the great figures in the history of Spanish and universal painting of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, built at the top of his career, this beautiful house in which he lived with his family until the end of his days. Today, the palace opens its doors to the public as a museum to show one of the richest collections of the artist's work, along with other collections that decorated his home. Decorative objects, easels, brushes and palettes, come together in an environment where the visitor is transported in time, experiencing Sorolla’s way of working in the workshop and thus reaching the depths of the artist. Enjoy its flowery garden of Andalusian inspiration walking or sitting by a fountain, and let yourself go with their color and brightness, two elements always present in the work of who is regarded as one of the geniuses of the Mediterranean light.

National Museum of Archeology

The National Archaeological Museum becomes a mandatory stop on Madrid’s cultural offer. Founded by Queen Elizabeth II in 1867, it is one of the most important museum institutions across the country, and its goal is to bring visitors a tour of masterpieces belonging to different peoples of the current Spain and the Mediterranean area, from ancient to recent times. Reopened in 2014 after being immersed in a deep renovation for six years, the museum has the best and most advanced technical means facilitating communication and understanding speech to everyone. Given the broad content of the collections, contact us and we will advise on the type of visit that suits you. (Tour around the highlights of the museum or visit in depth one of the periods represented).

Romanticism Museum

This charming house-museum located in an elegant building from the late eighteenth century in the central district of Justice, provides an overview of the history, art and customs of Spain during the Romanticism period. The luxurious rooms, precious objects, tableware and furniture, among many other pieces from the different collections, make this museum a unique place to enjoy and participate in what was the Spanish nineteenth-century atmosphere. During your visit, we will make a stop at the Garden Cafe, a haven of peace located in the palace’s courtyard, perfect for a chat, relax or enjoy its delicious homemade pies.

  • Winter opening times: (1/11-30/4) Tuesday-Saturday: 09:30-18:30, Sundays and Holidays: 10:00-15:00, Monday: closed
  • Summer opening times: (1/5-31/10) Tuesday-Saturday: 09:30-20:30, Sundays and Holidays: 10:00-15:00, Monday: closed
  • Ticket: 3€
  • Web: http://en.museoromanticismo.mcu.es/

Cerralbo Museum

At his death, the collector and archaeologist Enrique de Aguilera and Gamboa, Marquess of Cerralbo XVII, donated his palace and Spanish collections to the State, creating what today is the Cerralbo Museum. With this, he wanted that his collections remain "always together and be used for the study of science and art." This house-museum that follows the style of the Museum of Romanticism or the Lazaro Galdiano Museum, houses paintings, sculptures, furniture, ceramics, tapestries and armor, among many other objects, which invite visitors to immerse themselves in Madrid nineteenth environment.

  • Opening times: Tuesday-Saturday: 09:30-15:00, Thursday: 17:00-20:00, Sunday and Holidays: 10:00-15:00, Monday: closed.
  • Ticket: 3€
  • Web: http://en.museocerralbo.mcu.es/

Museum of America

This museum, with over 25,000 items in its collection, contains pre-Columbian, colonial and ethnographic pieces from, mostly, the first archaeological excavations in the Americas and objects collected by scientific expeditions. Since Christopher Columbus in 1493 made the first observations on the American continent, there were many military, religious, sailors and scientists, who wanted to come to the knowledge of America's past. Manuscripts, maps, sculptures or paintings, among other pieces, bring us closer to that knowledge and allow us to discover from an anthropological point of view, the fascinating American reality and diversity.

Costume Museum

A must for those who love fashion and its history. The Costume Museum and Ethnographic Heritage Research Center, shows visitors the historical evolution of clothing and testimonies of the ethnological heritage, representatives of the different cultures in Spain. The museum has a variety of collections result of various acquisitions since its inception and is a fascinating journey through the history and art of the fashion world. Besides the valuable pieces exhibited, covering a wide chronology from the Middle Ages to the present, there’s a whole section dedicated to today’s most prestigious national and international designers.

  • Opening times: Tuesday-Saturday: 09:30-19:00, Sunday and Holidays: 10:00-15:00, Mondays: closed
  • Ticket: 3€
  • Web: http://museodeltraje.mcu.es/ 

Lope de Vega House Museum

"My house, my peace, my little garden and study", this is how writer Lope de Vega defined the house where he lived during the last twenty five years of his life and where he wrote some of his most notable texts. Located in Cervantes Street, in the Literary Quarter, the place is now open as a house-museum with the goal to show the way of life of one of the greatest poets and playwrights of the Spanish Golden Age. It contains a broad artistic and literary heritage that fits the time of the poet and is an invitation to visitors to participate in the atmosphere that existed in Madrid’s seventeenth century culture, history and society.

  • Opening times: tueday-sunday: 10:00-18:00, Monday: closed.
  • Free entrance
  • The entrance is only allowed through a guided visit. (previous registration in casamuseolopedevega@madrid.org)
  • Web: http://casamuseolopedevega.org/en/

National Museum of Natural Science

Created by King Charles III in 1771 as the Royal Cabinet of Natural History, the current museum, which has received various names throughout history, it is one of the most emblematic centers of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), and one of the institutes of scientific research leading Spain in the field of natural sciences. The museum, considered one of the main focal points of Spanish and Mediterranean fauna, is based in the Palace of Arts and Industry, an imposing building from the late nineteenth century, located by the Paseo de la Castellana. With its valuable collections, the visitor learns how the planet is and how it has changed, and the diversity that it has hosted since the origin of life to this day.

  • Opening times: Tuesday-Saturday: 10:00-17:00, Sundays and Holidays: 10:00-17:00, Saturdays July and August 10:00-17:00, Mondays: closed.
  • Ticket: 7€
  • Web: http://www.mncn.csic.es/