The Museo Nacional del Prado, at Calle Ruiz de Alarcón 23 on the Paseo del Prado, holds the great Spanish royal collection of painting: Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Hieronymus Bosch, Titian and Rubens. It is open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 20:00 and on Sundays and public holidays from 10:00 to 19:00; a ticket costs €15. Entry to the collection is free for everyone Monday to Saturday from 18:00 to 20:00, and on Sundays and public holidays from 17:00 to 19:00. Allow at least 3 hours for the main rooms of the Villanueva Building, the neoclassical palace designed by the architect Juan de Villanueva and opened as a museum on 19 November 1819.
Highlights
The Velázquez façade
The six-column portico of the Villanueva Building faces the Paseo del Prado, behind the bronze statue of Velázquez. Visitors enter through the Jerónimos door on the east side, and tickets are sold at the ticket desks by the Goya door on the north side.
Velázquez's Las Meninas
Painted in 1656, this large portrait of the Infanta Margarita surrounded by her maids of honour, with the painter himself at work and the royal couple reflected in a mirror, is the museum's most famous work. The room also brings together other court portraits by Velázquez.
Goya: The Third of May 1808 and the Black Paintings
The Third of May, painted in 1814, shows French soldiers executing people of Madrid after the uprising of 2 May 1808. Nearby, the Black Paintings, which Goya painted on the walls of his house, the Quinta del Sordo, and which were later transferred to canvas, are among the darkest works in the history of painting.
Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights
This triptych reads from left to right: the earthly paradise, a garden filled with nude figures and fantastic animals, then hell. Take time to study the details, often tiny, that make it one of the most discussed paintings in the museum.
El Greco, Titian and Rubens
The Prado holds a large group of works by El Greco, including The Adoration of the Shepherds, as well as many paintings by Titian and Rubens inherited from the collections of the Spanish Habsburgs. Flemish and Italian painting fills a large part of the Villanueva Building.
Opening hours and prices
Open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 20:00, Sundays and public holidays from 10:00 to 19:00; reduced hours from 10:00 to 14:00 on 6 January, 24 and 31 December; closed on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. Entry until 30 minutes before closing. General ticket: €15; reduced rate €7.50 (over-65s, large families, youth card holders). Free for under-18s, students aged 18 to 25, people with disabilities and one essential companion, and unemployed people, on presentation of proof at the ticket desk. Free for everyone Monday to Saturday from 18:00 to 20:00, and on Sundays and public holidays from 17:00 to 19:00 (permanent collection; temporary exhibitions are half price in these slots), except on reduced-hours days, and all day on 18 May (International Museum Day), 12 October (national holiday) and 19 November, the museum's anniversary. The Paseo del Arte pass, at €32.80, gives one entry each to the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, valid for one year. Prices checked in October 2026.
Infos pratiques
Tips
Buy your ticket online with a time slot: you go straight in through the Jerónimos door without stopping at the ticket desks. For the free hours, tickets are collected at the ticket desk while places last, and a queue often forms before 18:00; arrive early and pick two or three rooms. Photography and filming are not allowed in the galleries.
How to get there
Calle Ruiz de Alarcón 23, 28014 Madrid (main façade on the Paseo del Prado). Metro Banco de España (line 2) or Estación del Arte (line 1); Cercanías Atocha or Recoletos. Buses 10, 14, 19, 27, 34, 37 and 45; the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is a 5-minute walk away and the Reina Sofía about 10 minutes.
Opening hours
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