Prado Museum: tickets, guided tours and how to get there

The Prado building was designed by Juan de Villanueva in 1785, commissioned by Charles III as a Natural History Cabinet on the Enlightenment axis of the Paseo del Prado. The Peninsular War left it badly damaged, and Ferdinand VII decided to use it for the royal painting collections: the Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures opened on 19 November 1819. After the revolution of 1868 it became state property and took the name Museo del Prado.

Its collection grew out of what the Habsburg and Bourbon kings gathered, and that shapes its character: it holds the world's finest groups of works by Velázquez, Goya and El Greco, with outstanding holdings of Bosch, Titian and Rubens. It covers European painting from the 12th to the 19th century, along with sculpture and decorative arts.

The brick and granite Villanueva Building has entrances with names of their own: the Velázquez Door on the main facade and the Goya Door to the north. In 2007 Rafael Moneo's extension opened, linking the museum to the cloister of the Jerónimos. Since 2021 it has been part of the Landscape of Light, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.