Madrid Top Art Museums

The Prado Museum, established more than 200 years ago, is the main Spanish national art museum, widely considered to house one of the world’s finest collections of European art  dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century.

The collection is based on the former Spanish royal art collection , and remains the single best collection of Spanish art in the world . It includes work by Goya, El Greco, Rubens , Titian and Velazquez.

The Reina Sofia Museum is the Prado’s modern art counterpart. It’s must-see piece is Picasso’s famous Guernica, a somber and moving depiction of the bombing of a small Basque town by the Nazis.

In addition to a respectable collection of Picasso masterpieces, you’ll also find works by more legendary artists of the 20th century, such as Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró.

Rounding out Madrid’s Golden Triangle of Art is the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum . Its original collection consisted of 775 paintings belonging to the famed art collector Heinrich Freiherr Thyssen-Bornemisza. These pieces, some from artists as famous as Picasso and El Greco, hang in chronological order throughout the Thyssen.

The Thyssen’s collection fills in the gap between the Prado and the Reina Sofía.