Madrid – is the capital and most populous city of Spain.
Madrid, the capital at the center of Spain, is a city characterized by elegant boulevards and large, manicured parks, such as the Buen Retiro Park.
Madrid is home to many European works of art, such as the paintings of Goya, Velázquez and other Spanish masters found at the Prado Museum.
Plaza Mayor, surrounded by arcades, is the heart of Habsburg Madrid. Not far away, stand the baroque Royal Palace and its Armory, where ancient weapons are displayed.
The most visited museum was the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, with 3.8 million visitors in the sum of its three seats in 2018. Conversely, the Prado Museum had 2.8 million visitors and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum 906,815 visitors.
Madrid is considered one of the top European destinations concerning art museums.
Best known is the Golden Triangle of Art, located along the Paseo del Prado and comprising three major museums: the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía Museum, and the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum.
The Prado Museum (Museo del Prado) is a museum and art gallery that features one of the world’s finest collections of European art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection.
It has the best collection of artworks by Goya, Velázquez, El Greco, Rubens, Titian, Hieronymus Bosch, José de Ribera, and Patinir as well as works by Rogier van der Weyden, Raphael Sanzio, Tintoretto, Veronese, Caravaggio, Van Dyck, Albrecht Dürer, Claude Lorrain, Murillo, and Zurbarán, among others.
Some of the standout works exhibited at the museum include Las Meninas, La maja vestida, La maja desnuda, The Garden of Earthly Delights, The Immaculate Conception and The Judgement of Paris.
The Reina Sofía National Art Museum (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; MNCARS) is Madrid’s national museum of 20th-century art and houses Pablo Picasso‘s 1937 anti-war masterpiece, Guernica.
Other highlights of the museum, which is mainly dedicated to Spanish art, include excellent collections of Spain’s greatest 20th-century masters including Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Picasso, Juan Gris, and Julio González.
The Reina Sofía also hosts a free-access art library.
