The Prado Museum Madrid

Famous for being the largest art gallery in the world, the Prado Museum, Madrid, exhibits sculptures, drawings, coins and some of the world´s most exquisite works of art. Home to more than 8,600 paintings, the Prado Museum is said to have more works of art in storage than on the walls, due to lack of space.

The building was designed by Juan de Villanueva in 1785, under the orders of Charles III to house the Natural History Cabinet. The monarch´s grandson, Ferdinand VII decided to later use the building as the Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures, which then became the Prado Museum, which officially opened to the public in 1819. The museum was created to show works of art which belonged to the Spanish crown, and to demonstrate to the rest of Europe that Spanish art was of a very high merit. The museum includes some of the most important royal collections, which form the nucleus of the present-day Prado.

The current art gallery exhibits less than 2,000 paintings, and the present-day art gallery comes from the royal collections of the old Trinidad Museum, as well as acquistions, donations and bequests. The Prado treasures are now exhibited in two adjacent buildings, the Villanueva Building, where the majority of the works are housed, and the Cason del Buen Retiro.

 In order that visitors see the most they can of the exhibitions, the Prado has organised three routes around the museum, showing 15, 30 and 50 of its masterpieces, including The Annunciatino by Fra Angelico, Principe Pio by Goya, The Three Graces by Rubens, Las Meninas by Velazquez, and Jacob´s Dream by Rivera.