World-class art in Madrid

A world-renowned annual contemporary art fair featuring painting, sculpture, photography, and digital art from both national and international galleries and artists. It takes place over four days in February, in the majestic setting of the Palacio de Cibeles.

The Marques de Cerralbo’s horde of artworks and curio includes El Greco’s Ecstasy of St Francis and fantastic Japanese armour.

This royal convent was founded by the daughter of Emperor Charles V in 1559 – it’s now packed full of Golden Age art, priceless masterpieces and valuable religious relics, all paid for by the dowries of former nuns accumulated over the centuries.

Goya devotees should see his work at its most delightful in this chapel (now a museum), that’s also the artist’s final resting place.

A fantastic private collection of over 12,000 ceramics, jewellery, small bonzes, coins, carvings, manuscripts and other fascinating artefacts from the nineteenth century back to the prehistoric period. It’s housed in a historic Madrid, with original baroque painted ceilings.

One of the finest museums in the world, the Prado was originally meant to be a museum of natural science. However, by the time it was completed in 1819, its purpose had shifted to that of a grand art exhibition space. Today, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection, it is the single best collection of Spanish art and arguably the world’s finest collection of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century.

Its vast galleries are packed with household-name masterpieces and heavyweight artists – the stars of the show being Velazquez, El Greco and Goya. The hugely impressive permanent collection comprises around 8,000+ drawings, 7,600+ paintings, 4,800+ prints, and 1,000+ sculptures – though at any one time, only 1,300 works are displayed in the main building due to capacity constraints.

There are usually also several world-class temporary exhibitions running alongside the permanent collection.

Madrid’s world-class modern art museum, housed in a vast 18th-century former hospital with an extension by Jean Nouvel, has a collection encompassing art from the beginning of the 20th century onwards. The museum is mainly dedicated to Spanish art, and is home to outstanding collections of Spain’s two greatest 20th-century masters, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.

Works by other Spanish artists such as Miro, Chillida and Tapies sit alongside international names such as Francis Bacon, Donald Judd and Gerhard Richter, and there are always a few worthwhile temporary exhibitions. No wonder it ranks 6th on the list of the world’s most visited art museums.

One of the most prestigious art schools in Spain, founded in 1744. It houses a superb collection of Goya paintings, plus others by Arcimboldo, Velazquez, Rubens, Van Dyck, El Greco, Murillo and Zurbaran. Look out for some excellent temporary exhibitions.

The Madrid home of early 20th-century artist Joaquin Sorolla, known as ‘the master of light’, is now filled with his neo-Impressionist works.

This outstanding art collection – accumulated by Swiss industrialist Baron Hans-Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza – tells the story of 800 years of art history, from 13th-century Italian Gothic paintings all the way up to 20th-century Pop Art. One of the world’s largest private collections, this treasure trove of nearly a thousand paintings is housed in a grand 18th-century neoclassical palace

Major highlights include paintings by Ghirlandaio, Durer, Titian, Raphael, Degas and Kandinsky. There’s usually at least one temporary exhibition on, too, and a lovely terrace bar on the rooftop.