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The Villanueva Building of the Museo del Prado, Madrid

No. 13 Top 100 Most Visited Art Museums 2025 · 3,513,402 visitors in 2025

Museo Nacional del Prado

Madrid, Spain · City guide: Madrid

Spain's great museum of old masters: Velázquez, Goya, Bosch and El Greco on Madrid's Paseo del Prado.

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Photo: Dmadeo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Overview

The Museo Nacional del Prado is No. 13 in The Art Newspaper's survey of the world's most visited art museums, with 3,513,402 visitors in 2025, up 2% on 2024. It opened in 1819 in a Neoclassical building designed by Juan de Villanueva, originally intended for a natural history cabinet.

Built on the Spanish royal collection, it has the world's finest holdings of Spanish painting, above all Velázquez and Goya, as well as major works by Bosch, Titian, Rubens and El Greco. Rafael Moneo's extension opened in 2007. The Paseo del Prado and the Retiro became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021 as the 'Landscape of Light'.

The Velázquez entrance façade of the Prado's Villanueva Building
The Velázquez entrance façade of the Prado's Villanueva Building. Photo: losmininos, CC BY-SA 2.0, source

Best time to visit

The museum is open every day. Entry is free for the last two hours of the day, but queues are long then. For a calmer visit, book a timed ticket for opening time on a weekday.

Highlights & collections

  • 1

    Las Meninas

    Velázquez's enigmatic 1656 portrait of the Infanta Margarita and her attendants, with the painter himself at his easel.

  • 2

    Goya

    The Third of May 1808 and the haunting Black Paintings, which Goya painted on the walls of his house.

  • 3

    The Garden of Earthly Delights

    Hieronymus Bosch's teeming triptych of paradise, earthly pleasure and hell.

  • 4

    El Greco

    Elongated, intense religious paintings and The Nobleman with His Hand on His Chest.

  • 5

    Titian, Rubens and Dürer

    Highlights include Rubens's The Three Graces and Dürer's 1498 self-portrait.

Getting there

The Prado is on the Paseo del Prado. The nearest Metro stations are Banco de España (Line 2) and Estación del Arte (Line 1), and Atocha railway station is about a 10-minute walk away. From Barajas Airport, take Metro Line 8 or the Airport Express bus.

Visiting tips

Tickets & hours
Buy timed tickets online to skip the ticket queue. Check the official website for prices and hours.
Time needed
At least three hours for the highlights.
Tips
Photography is not allowed in the galleries.
Currency
Euro (EUR). Cards, including contactless, are accepted almost everywhere.
Visa & entry
Spain is in the Schengen Area. Many visitors, including citizens of the US, Canada, the UK and Australia, can stay up to 90 days in any 180-day period without a visa. The EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) now records non-EU travellers' entries and exits at the border, and the ETIAS travel authorisation is due to follow. Check the official EU site travel-europe.europa.eu and your own government's travel advice before you go.

Official information: Museo Nacional del Prado (official website). Check opening hours, prices and entry rules there before you go.

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