Prado Museum Madrid: The Complete Visitor Guide

The Museo del Prado is one of the world's three or four greatest art museums — a collection of 7,600 paintings and 4,800 prints assembled by the Spanish Crown over five centuries, representing the pinnacle of European art from the 12th to early 20th centuries. Velázquez's Las Meninas (Room 12) is the most debated painting in Western art history — a layered meditation on representation, royal power, and the artist's own role that rewards an hour's contemplation. Goya's Black Paintings in Room 67 are among the most psychologically disturbing works ever committed to canvas, painted directly on the walls of his house in a state of increasing deafness and despair. El Greco's elongated, spiritually intense figures occupy their own rooms. Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights (Room 56A) is the most hallucinatory painting in existence. Entry is free Monday–Saturday 6–8pm and Sunday 5–7pm — arrive 20 minutes early. The permanent collection alone requires a full day; the temporary exhibitions add weeks.