The Museo Nacional del Prado is Spain’s principal national art museum and one of the finest collections of European painting in the world, spanning the 12th through early 20th centuries. Its holdings center on Spanish masters, with the largest collections anywhere of works by Diego Velázquez, Francisco Goya, and El Greco.
Must-see works include Velázquez’s “Las Meninas,” Goya’s “The Third of May 1808” and his unsettling Black Paintings, and Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” The museum’s Villanueva Building, opened in 1819, was originally designed as a natural history museum before becoming home to the royal art collection.
The Prado sits within Madrid’s “Golden Triangle of Art” alongside the Reina Sofía and Thyssen-Bornemisza museums, making a single arts-focused day possible. Free entry is offered during the last two hours before closing most days, though the museum is busiest then.