Museo del Prado
Spain'S National Art Museum, Opened 1819 In Villanueva'S 1785 Building, Holding The Royal Collection And The Largest Bodies Of Velazquez, Goya And El Greco Anywhere · Madrid, Madrid
One of the two or three great picture galleries in the world, and the one with the clearest character, because it is not a survey collection assembled by curators but the private taste of the Spanish crown hung on a wall. Habsburg and Bourbon kings bought what they liked for three hundred years, which is why the Prado is overwhelming in exactly four places and thin everywhere else. It holds the largest bodies of Velazquez, Goya and El Greco anywhere, the best Bosch outside nowhere at all, and a Titian holding that exists because Philip II collected him obsessively. Las Meninas alone justifies the trip, and the Black Paintings that Goya put on the walls of his own house in his deaf old age are the darkest things in any major museum. It is large enough to exhaust anyone, so the right approach is not to see it all. Pick four rooms, go slowly, and come back in the free evening window, which runs in the last two hours of every single day and which most visitors never hear about.
Calle de Ruiz de Alarcon 23, Madrid, Madrid, 28014, Spain
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: open daily with a LATER CLOSE MONDAY TO SATURDAY and a SHORTER SUNDAY AND HOLIDAY SCHEDULE. The defining feature is the FREE ADMISSION WINDOW IN THE LAST TWO HOURS OF EVERY DAY, shorter on Sundays and holidays. Last entry is shortly before closing and rooms begin clearing before that. The museum closes on a small number of public holidays each year. Confirm the free window, which is the reason to time a visit at all.