Madrid - Prado Museum Museo del Prado

No other museum offers such an outstanding overview of Spanish painting from the 12th to the early 19th C. as the Prado and a visit to the museum is undoubtedly one of the high points of a stay in Madrid.

The Prado has its origins in a royal collection which was accumulated by the Habsburgs (especially Charles V, Philip II and Philip IV) and the Bourbons (Philip V, Charles III and Charles IV). During the reign of Charles III plans were conceived for the building which now houses the most famous art gallery in the country.

Under the scheme to create a "Salón del Prado", Juan de Villanueva was entrusted with the task of building a museum which was originally intended to be devoted to natural history. In 1819 under Ferdinand VII it was opened as a "Museum for the Royal Collection of Paintings".

The Prado contains over 5,000 paintings, of which some 2,300 are on display to the public in 120 rooms, arranged over three storys. In addition there is an important collection of sculptures. The bewilderingly vast range of works of arts owned by the museum makes a detailed description impossible. Moreover for many years now, as a result of ongoing renovation work, rooms have been temporarily closed and pictures hung in alternative rooms, so that alterations in the layout of the museum are always possible. In the Prado itself a plan giving the exact location of individual works of art is not available; instead there is a complete guide called the "Key to the Prado". For the above-mentioned reasons it is not possible to indicate the positions of the pictures listed below, which in any case represent only the principal works of the most important painters represented in the museum.