8 Best Sights in Madrid, Spain

Spain’s national museum of contemporary art houses works by all the major 20th-century Spanish painters and sculptors. Its collection breaks from tradition by grouping works of the great modern masters—Picasso, Miró, and Salvador Dalí—by historical context as opposed to artistic movement. So, Goya's Disasters of War engravings (a precursor of the avant-garde movements of the 20th century) sits beside one of the first movies ever made, Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory by the Lumière brothers. Picassos and Dalís are not displayed together but are rather scattered around the 38 rooms. The museum also displays important works by Juan Gris, Jorge Oteiza, Pablo Gargallo, Julio González, Eduardo Chillida, and Antoni Tàpies.

The crown jewel is Picasso's Guernica. The sprawling black-and-white canvas depicts the horror of the Nazi bombing of innocent civilians in the ancient Basque town of Gernika in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The work was commissioned by the Republican government for the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 World's Fair in an attempt to garner sympathy for the Republican cause. Rooms adjacent to Guernica reconstruct the artistic significance of Spain's participation in the World's Fair with works by Miró, Josep Maria Sert, Alexander Calder, and others. Guernica did not reach Madrid until 1981, as Picasso had stipulated in his will that the painting return to Spain only after democracy was restored.

The fourth floor in the Sabatini Building is devoted to art created after World War II, and the Nouvel Annex displays paintings, sculptures, photos, videos, and installations from the last quarter of the 20th century.

The museum was once a hospital, but the austerity of the space is somewhat relieved (or ruined, depending on your point of view) by the playful pair of glass elevator shafts on its facade. Three separate buildings joined by a common vault were added to the original complex in 2005—the first contains an art bookshop and a public library, the second a center for contemporary exhibitions, and the third an auditorium and restaurant. The latter, which got a face-lift in 2017, is a colorful, space-age spot to enjoy a café con leche—or a cocktail—and an eye-catching tapa or two.

One of the world's top museums, the Prado is to Madrid what the Louvre is to Paris: an iconic landmark that merits a visit by every traveler who comes to the city.

King Carlos III commissioned the construction of the Prado in 1785 as a natural science museum, the nucleus of a larger complex encompassing the adjoining botanical gardens and elegant Paseo del Prado. But when the building was completed in 1819, the royal family opted to turn it into a museum showcasing the art gathered by Spanish royalty since the time of Fernando and Isabel. In the 21st century the museum got a new building and wing resurrecting long-hidden works by Zurbarán and Antonio de Pereda and more than doubling the number of paintings on display from the permanent collection.

The Prado's jewels are by the nation's three great masters, Goya, Velázquez, and El Greco, though the museum also holds masterpieces by Flemish, Dutch, German, French, and Italian artists, collected when their lands were part of the Spanish Empire. The museum benefited greatly from the anticlerical laws of 1836, which forced monasteries, convents, and churches to forfeit many of their artworks for public display.

Enter the Prado via the Goya entrance, with steps opposite the Mandarin Oriental Ritz hotel. The layout varies (grab a floor plan), but the first halls on the left coming from the Goya entrance (Rooms 7A–11 on the second floor) are usually devoted to 17th-century Flemish painters, including Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), and Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641).

Room 12 introduces you to the meticulous brushwork of Velázquez (1599–1660) in his numerous portraits of kings and queens. Look for Las Hilanderas (The Spinners), evidence of the artist's talent for painting light. The Prado's most famous canvas, Velázquez's Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), combines a self-portrait of the artist at work with a mirror reflection of the king and queen in a revolutionary interplay of space and perspectives. Picasso was obsessed with this work and painted several copies of it—now on display in the Picasso Museum in Barcelona—in his own abstract style.

The south ends of the second and top floors (primera planta and segunda planta) are reserved for Goya (1746–1828), whose works range from the bucolic to the horrific in tone. Among his early masterpieces are portraits of the family of King Carlos IV, for whom he was court painter. One glance at their unflattering and imbecilic expressions, especially in The Family of Carlos IV, reveals the loathing Goya developed for these self-indulgent, reactionary rulers. His famous side-by-side canvases, The Clothed Maja and The Nude Maja, may represent the young Duchess of Alba, whom Goya adored and frequently painted. No one knows whether she ever returned his affection. The adjacent rooms house a series of idyllic scenes of Spaniards at play, painted as designs for tapestries.

Goya's paintings grew political around 1808, when Madrid rose up against occupying French troops. The 2nd of May portrays the insurrection at the Puerta del Sol, and its even more terrifying companion piece, The 3rd of May, depicts the nighttime executions of patriots who had rebelled the day before. The garish light in this work typifies the romantic style, which favors drama over detail, and makes it one of the most powerful indictments of violence ever committed to canvas. Goya's "Black Paintings" are dark, disturbing works, completed late in his life, that reflect his inner turmoil after losing his hearing and his embitterment over the bloody War of Independence. These are copies of the enormous, hallucinatory paintings Goya made with marvelously free brushstrokes on the walls of his house (known as La Quinta del Sordo: "the Deaf One's Villa"), situated near the Manzanares River. Don't miss the terrifying Saturn Devouring One of His Sons (which Goya displayed in his dining room!), a painting that communicates the ravages of age and time.

The Prado's ground floor (planta baja) is filled with 15th- and 16th-century Flemish paintings, including the bizarre proto-surrealist masterpiece Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450–1516). In Rooms 60A, 61A, and 62A, contemplate the passionately spiritual works of El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos, 1541–1614), the Greek-born artist who lived and worked in Toledo, known for his mystical elongated forms and faces—a style that was shocking to a public accustomed to strictly representational images. Two of his greatest paintings, The Resurrection and The Adoration of the Shepherds, are on view here. Before you leave, stop in the 14th- to 16th-century Italian rooms to see Titian's Portrait of Emperor Charles V and Raphael's Portrait of a Cardinal.

Buy tickets in advance online; to save a few bucks on an audio guide, download the Prado Museum Visitor Guide app ahead of your visit.

See the world through the once-in-a-generation eye of Spain's most famous impressionist painter, Joaquín Sorolla (1863–1923), who lived and worked most of his life at this home and garden that he designed and decorated. Every corner is filled with exquisite artwork—including plenty of original Sorollas—and impeccably selected furnishings, which pop against brightly colored walls that evoke the Mediterranean coast, where the painter was born. The museum can be seen as part of the Abono Cinco Palacios, a €12 pass that grants access to five mansion-museums.

The far-reaching collection of the Thyssen's almost 1,000 paintings traces the history of Western art with examples from every important movement, from 13th-century Italian Gothic through 20th-century American pop art. The works were gathered from the 1920s to the 1980s by Swiss industrialist Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and his father; the museum, inaugurated in 1992, occupies the light-filled galleries of the late-18th-century Palacio de Villahermosa. Critics have described the museum's paintings as the minor works of major artists and the major works of minor artists, and the collection traces the development of Western humanism as no other in the world.

One highlight is Hans Holbein's Portrait of Henry VIII. American artists are also well represented; look for the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Impressionists and Post–Impressionists including Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Cézanne. Track down Pissarro's Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain for a jolt of mortality, or Renoir's Woman with a Parasol in a Garden for a sense of bucolic beauty lost.

Within 20th-century art, the collection is strong on dynamic German Expressionism and works by Georgia O'Keeffe, Andrew Wyeth, Edward Hopper, Francis Bacon, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roy Lichtenstein. The temporary exhibits can be fascinating and in summer are sometimes open until 11 pm. In summer, the rooftop terrace (closed Mondays; accessible via a separate entrance on Calle de Zorrilla) is an appealing place to kick back with a coffee or cocktail. You can buy tickets to the museum in advance online.

Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron (who designed London's Tate Modern) converted an early-20th-century power station into a stunning arts complex that arguably turns Madrid's "Golden Triangle" of art museums into a quadrilateral. Belonging to one of the country's wealthiest foundations (La Caixa bank), the structure seems to float above the sloped public plaza, with a tall vertical garden designed by French botanist Patrick Blanc on its northern side contrasting with a geometric rust-color roof. Inside, the soaring exhibition halls display ancient as well as contemporary art including pieces from La Caixa's proprietary collection. 

One of Madrid's most captivatingly opulent museums is also one of its least known. This former palace, built in 1893 by the marquis of the same name, preserves the nobleman's art collection including works by El Greco, Tintoretto, Van Dyck, and Zurbarán. These hang in gilded and frescoed halls appointed with ornate period furniture.

This palatial building showcases 70,000 items including textiles, furniture, jewelry, ceramics, glass, crystal, and metalwork. The collection starts with medieval and Renaissance items on the first floor and ends with 18th- and 19th-century pieces on the top floor. The ground floor rotates temporary exhibitions and avant-garde works. This museum can be seen as part of the Abono Cinco Palacios, a €12 pass that grants access to five mansion-museums over a 10-day period.

Designed by José Benito de Churriguera in the waning baroque years of the early 18th century, this museum showcases 500 years of Spanish painting, from José Ribera and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo to Joaquín Sorolla and Ignacio Zuloaga. The tapestries along the stairways are stunning. The gallery displays paintings up to the 18th century, including some by Goya. Guided tours are usually available (check the website for times). The same building houses the Calcografía Nacional (National Prints Institute), which sells limited-edition prints from original plates engraved by Spanish artists. There are often classical concerts and literary events in the small upstairs hall: tickets can be purchased on the website.