Museo del Prado

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  • Tue-Sun 09:00 - 20:00

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Lonely Planet review

Converted in 1819 from a natural history museum to a repository of Spanish art held in royal collections, the Museo del Prado hosts over 7000 works. The strongest collections are the 17th- and 18th-century Spanish paintings featuring the likes of Velázquez, Goya and Ribera. It's an artistic feast that is many visitors' main reason for visiting Madrid.

Welcome to one of the best and most important art galleries anywhere in the world. The paintings held in the Museo del Prado's collection (although less than half are currently on display) are like a window on the historical vagaries of the Spanish soul, at once grand and imperious in the royal paintings of Velázquez, darkly tumultuous in the pinturas negras (black paintings) of Goya and outward-looking with sophisticated works of art from all across Europe. Spend as long as you can at the Prado or, better still, plan to make a couple of visits because it can all be a little overwhelming if you try to absorb it all at once.

Part of the Prado's appeal is the fact that the building in which it is housed is itself a masterpiece, although its early days were less than momentous. Completed in 1785, the neo-Classical Palacio de Villanueva was conceived as a house of science but served, somewhat ignominiously, as a cavalry barracks for Napoleon's troops during their occupation of Madrid between 1808 and 1813. In 1814 King Fernando VII decided to use the palace as a museum, although his purpose was more about finding a way of storing the hundreds of royal paintings gathering dust than any high-minded civic ideals - his was an era where art was a royal preserve. Five years later the Museo del Prado opened with 311 Spanish paintings on display. The Prado has never looked back. You can enter the Prado by the southern Puerta de Murillo, but we suggest that you climb the stairs and enter through the northern Puerta de Goya. Entering this way thrusts you immediately into the grandeur of this former palace as well as into the middle of its priceless collection.