Reina Sofía Museum

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

The modern art museum you visit for Picasso's Guernica

⚠ Closed Tuesdays

Hours

Mon & Wed–Sat 10:00–21:00, Sun 10:00–14:30, closed Tuesdays; also closed 1 & 6 Jan, 1 & 15 May, 9 Nov, 24, 25 & 31 Dec

Tickets

General €12. Book free-hour tickets online (individuals only). Under-18s, over-65s and others free with ID

Address

Main entrance in the Sabatini building, Calle de Santa Isabel 52; with an online ticket you can also use the Nouvel building at Ronda de Atocha 2

On the second floor of the Sabatini building, an old royal hospital with glass lift towers bolted on, there's a room where people stand in a hushed half-circle. That's Guernica. More than seven metres of black, white and grey: a screaming horse, a woman wailing at the sky with a dead child in her arms. You've seen it a hundred times in print, and it still knocks the wind out of you at full size. The next rooms hold photos of Picasso painting it and his studies, which make it land even harder. Dalí and Miró are on the same floor, so an hour covers the essentials.