The Prado Museum Madrid

Madrid's pride, the Prado Museum, is indisputably the world's greatest collection of Spanish paintings. Even apart from the Spanish treasure it deserves high priority to any visitor's agenda for its hundreds of famous foreign works, especially of the Italian and Flemish schools. This immense hoard was collected by Spain's Hapsburg and Bourbon kings, by private patrons of the arts and by convents and monasteries around the country.

The history of the museum involves an element of chance. More than two centuries ago, Charles III commissioned the architect Juan de Villanueva, draughtsman of the Royal Palace project, to design this neoclassical building. It was supposed to have served as a museum of natural history, but after some eventful delays (Napoleon's invasion badly damaged the building), its mission was diverted to art: the Royal Museum of Painting was inaugurated in 1819. In 1868 it became el Museum del Prado.

In the 1980s, modernization projects, such as desperately needed air conditioning and humidity control, caused upheaval. Among the side effects: the reordering of rooms, which outpaced the efforts of the mapmakers. Luckily, the Prado has always been a nice place to get lost in.

A Prado annexed, the Cason del Buen Retiro, up the hill in Calle de Felipe IV, houses Picasso's monumental Guernica. Bulletproof glass protects this time bomb of a painting, a panorama of horror, provoked by the Civil War bombing of a defenceless Basque town. In small halls flanking the main event, exhibits of priceless sketches and studies show how much preparation went into what, on the final canvas, looks like the exiled Picasso's spontaneous rage. Opposite the Prado, an elegant three storey brick palace is being readied for the arrival of the kind of art collection museum keepers might duel over. The Palacio de Villahermosa, a Prado annexe, is to be the home of more than 700 masterpieces, including Spanish classics, owned by Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen Bornemisza. The Germanborn industrialist has agreed to transfer them from his Swiss villa under a tenyear loan agreement.

The Prado owns perhaps 7,500 paintings in all, but the walls can comfortably hold only about 1,000 of them. (The overflow is either in storage or on loan to museums around the world.) Seeing and appreciating 1,000 great paintings could occupy a serious student of art for days. The tourist rush will have to settle for the condensed highlights, perhaps in a hectic couple of hours. To take in more of the old masters per mile, plan ahead. Decide what you want to see and give the remainder of the trove the merest glance. This is not so easy in practice, for it requires great discipline, and may involve some frustration as you rush past obvious masterworks. Another tip, valid for any large museum: rest your feet, as well as your eyes, from time to time; there's no shortage of seats in the Prado.

For a hurried dash through the museum, or an overview at the start of several visits, here are our nominations for the Prado's top dozen painters. They are listed chronologically within their groups. To speed your rounds, we spotlight their most famous works.