Rating the Big 3 Art Museums of Madrid.
The Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofía are the 3 best known museums in Madrid. They’re all famous and all unique, appealing to different art lovers.
They can also all be visited for free if you plan ahead (as we did. In fact, visiting the museums was the main goal of this latest visit to Madrid).
In this post I write about these 3 art museums, tell you which we rated as our favorite, and give you all the information you need on visiting them for free.
Museo Nacional del Prado
It is the most famous museum in Spain, in fact one of the most famous art museums anywhere in the world. It has a large collection of European art (dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century) as well as the largest collection of Spanish art found anywhere. Painters featured prominently include Francisco Goya and Diego Velázquez, two of the most famous Spanish painters. You’ll also see paintings by El Greco (Greek, but most of his masterpieces were done after moving to Toledo), Titian, Hieronymus Bosch and Peter Paul Rubens. Controversially, until recently none of Pablo Picasso’s works were in the Prado due to the museum’s policy of not admitting works dating past 1881. In 2021 the Prado eventually allowed one of his works to be admitted to the museum.
The Prado is a huge museum with 7,000 paintings, 8,000 drawings, 4,800 prints and 1,000 sculptures spread out over 4 floors. If you are an art lover, you could spend days here.
We enjoy taking photos of our favorite works when we visit a museum. It allows us to identify which we love the most and do more reading on the pieces. Unfortunately, as we found out in the first 5 minutes, no photography is allowed at the Prado.
A few photos we did manage to take before being told that photos weren’t allowed:
One other thing about the Prado: much of the art is religious art that was commissioned by churches, cathedrals, convents etc. They are many huge pieces, often times altarpieces donated by religious buildings. Very impressive but some people may find the religious art repetitive.
How to visit the Prado for FREE: every day, the last 2 working hours are free. Monday to Saturday that means 6pm to 8pm are free, Sundays and public holidays are free 5pm to 7pm. If spending any amount of time in Madrid that’s ideal – we were there for 6 days and took advantage of the above to visit the Prado on 2 consecutive days.
Tickets: if you don’t have the flexibility for the free hours, the regular price for the Prado is 15 Euros/pp. But it is worth buying the “Art Walk Pass” that gives you entry to all the museums that I cover in this post: Museo Nacional del Prado, The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. This pass costs $32.80 and it allows you one entry to all the above museums for 1 year from date of purchase. See more ticket options on the Prado official website.
Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum
Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva was a Hungarian-German entrepreneur and art collector. His collection was initially housed in the family estate in Lugano Switzerland but when the city rejected his expansion plans (his collection became too big for the space) he decided to relocate his art to Spain in a building near the Prado*. At the time it was the 2nd largest private art collection in the world.
*His decision in 1985 was influenced by his wife, a Spanish socialite and former “Miss Spain” from 1961.
In 1999 the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum officially opened.
The “Thyssen” (as it is called for short) has a wide-ranging collection of international art which includes the Old Masters (with many Italian, Flemish and Dutch painters) as well as 19th and 20th century works, some from North America. The result is a wide mix of some of the most beautiful paintings from some of the most famous painters in the world.
Luckily, the Thyssen does allow photos which meant I could show you some of the exceptional paintings here:
How to visit the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum for FREE: Every Monday is FREE (open 12:00 – 4pm). It is also FREE Saturday evenings from 9 – 11 pm. Official website.
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
The Reina Sofía is different than the “old and stuffy” Prado and Thyssen: it specializes in contemporary art, dating from the end of the 19th century on. In fact, there is a Royal Decree stating a 1881 dividing line between the Prado and the Reina Sofia (1881 the chosen year because it was Picasso’s birth year). So what you’ll find here is work done after 1881.
You’ll see works by famous Spanish artists such as Picasso, Salvador Dali and Joan Miró. There’s a wide mix of non-traditional art: Surrealist art, Cubism and neo-figurative painting. It also features advertising posters, sculptures, video, film and audiovisuals pieces.
Some photos:
More of what you’ll see at the Reina Sofia…
How to visit the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía for FREE: Like the Prado museum, you can see the Reina Sofia for FREE the last 2 hours of every day (Monday to Saturday that means 7pm to 9pm). On Sunday, those 2 free hours are from 12:30 to 2:30.
Tickets: regular tickets cost 12 Euros/pp. Official site here.
So which was our favorite of the Big 3 Art Museums of Madrid?
All 3 museums are different and the art you enjoy most might not jive with ours. Having said that, I list our favorites in this order:
- Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum. Great art featuring wide array of the best paintings and artists in the world, both old and new. Organized layout for a visit, you can take photos…and you have a 4-hour free window on Mondays (not just the 2 hours at the other two museums). We loved everything about this museum.
- Museo Nacional del Prado. It is a huge museum with tons of art. Worthy of its reputation as one of the world’s most famous museum. Wish photos were allowed.
- Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. I don’t “get” most contemporary art so I didn’t appreciate the Reina Sofia as much as other people might. We also found the layout of the building a bit confusing and struggled in organizing our visit.
The bottom line is that all 3 museums are absolutely worth a visit when in Madrid. Tons of great art and being able to see it for free is the icing on the cake.
Related: 48 Hours in Madrid
Related: The 5 Best Daytrips from Madrid
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