Following The Artist's Trail In Madrid | Recreation and Leisure

By amayco
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Narrowing the Museums of Madrid down to just a few is certainly not the easiest of tasks. However, as European travel becomes cheaper and cheaper Madrid is the recipient of ever more short term visitors. The choice of hotels is, as expected and covers all budgets and preferences. Low star hotels can be found from around 25 euros a night ranging up to beautiful 5 star accommodation for several hundreds. So, with only a few days in the city, what are the must see museums.

The Paseo del Arte or Avenue of the Art runs along the Paseo del Prado and plays host to the three most popular museum attractions in Madrid the Prado Muesum, the Reina Sofia, and the Thyssen-Bomemisza. These three sites together combine to create the "Golden Triangle of Art".

The Prado Mueseum is worth a visit for the building itself. It has one of the largest collections of classical paintings anywhere in the world. With over 2.5 million annual visitors, the building itself was commissioned in 1785 by Carlos III and was designed and constructed by Juan de Villanueva. During the nineteenth century, in the reign of Fernando VII the building was used to house hundreds of works from the Spanish monarch; now in the 21st century it homes more than 8,000 pieces of work the majority of which are in storage due to lack of space. The Museum is closed on Mondays but open on all other days between 9a.m. and 7 p.m. Entrance is free, and the museum is best reached from either the Banco de Espaoa or the Atocha metro stations.

Next on the list is the Reina Sofia museum which used to be the Hospital de San carlos, but today is the home of Modern Art in Madrid. In 2007, over 1.5 million people visited the Reina Sofia museum, and with works from Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali it has one of the finest collections in Europe of modern art. For many visitors it is Picasso's Guernica which is the highlight of the visit; the Mona Lisa of the Reina Sofia if you please. The Reina Sofia Museum is free to enter on the weekend but costs 6 Euros during the week. The museum is closed on Tuesdays, open on Sundays between 10 a.m. and 2.30 p.m., and open between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. during the rest of the week.

The last of the Museum trilogy is the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Art which took over the neo-Classical Palacio de Villahermosa in 1992 after renovations by Rafael Moneo. Spanning the history of art from the 13th century to modern day, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Art has over 800 paintings from the collection of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, plus 220 pieces from the Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza which were added to the museum's collection later. The museum is closed on Mondays but open the rest of the week between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.; Entrance costs 6 euros.

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