Prado Museum

Well if there's one museum to do in Madrid, it's definitly this one! In order to avoid the queue if visiting in high season, you can buy a ticket online on the museum's website indicated here.

The Museo del Prado is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It 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, and unquestionably the best single collection of Spanish art.

Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture, it also contains important collections of other types of works. A new, recently opened wing enlarged the display area by about 400 paintings, and it is currently used mainly for temporary expositions. El Prado is one of the most visited sites in the world, and it is considered to be among the greatest museums of art. The large numbers of works by Velázquez and Francisco de Goya (the artist more extensively represented in the collection), Titian, Rubens and Bosch are among the highlights of the collection.

The collection currently comprises around 7,600 paintings, 1,000 sculptures, 4,800 prints and 8,200 drawings, in addition to a large number of other works of art and historic documents. By 2012 the Museum will be displaying about 1300 works in the main buildings, while around 3,100 works are on temporary loan to various museums and official institutions. The remainder are in storage.

The best-known work on display at the museum is Las Meninas by Velázquez. Velázquez not only provided the Prado with his own works, but his keen eye and sensibility was also responsible for bringing much of the museum's fine collection of Italian masters to Spain.

Opening Hours:
From Monday to Saturday: 10am – 8pm. Sundays and holidays: 10am - 7pm.

Closed: January 1, May 1 and December 25.

Reduced opening hours: January 6, December 24 and 31, 10am – 2pm.

For More information you can visit the Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prado_Museum
or the Museum's website indicated above.Less