Museums and theatres

EL PRADO NATIONAL MUSEUM

Paseo del Prado, s/n, 28014 Madrid
The museum building started out as a Cabinet of Natural Sciences.  It opened its doors to the public for the first time in 1819. The first catalogue consisted of just 311 paintings, but the museum already held more than 1500 works from the Royal Estates. These priceless collections formed the core of the current collection held by the Prado Museum. Great artworks closely linked to the history of Spain hang on its walls. The universal value of the museum's complete art collection has earned it a worldwide reputation.

REINA SOFÍA NATIONAL ART CENTRE

Calle de Santa Isabel, 52, 28012 Madrid
The Queen Sofía National Art Centre is popularly known as the Queen Sofía Museum (the "Museo Reina Sofía"). It's currently considered as an example of excellence, setting the standard for contemporary art museums all over the world. This is largely due to the good management of its travelling exhibitions and its permanent collection of great 20th century artists such as Picasso, Dalí and Miró.  The most famous and iconic work held in the museum is undoubtedly Picasso's Guernica.

Thyssen - Bornemisza Museum

Palacio de Villahermosa, Paseo del Prado 8, 28014 Madrid

Rafael Moneo was responsible for the project of transforming the Villahermosa Palace into a museum with 48 rooms holding more than 900 artworks. The Thyssen-Bornemisza collection completes the city of Madrid's impressive artistic and cultural provision. The artworks held here reinforce the presence of the 19th and 20th century modernist movement. The opening of the museum completed the so-called Golden Triangle of Art in Madrid, formed by the Prado Museum, the Queen Sofía Museum and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

Teatro Lope de Vega

Calle Gran Vía, 57, 28013 Madrid

This iconic theatre is one of the most outstanding venues on Madrid's Gran Vía. Known as the Spanish Broadway, it's the theatre of choice for musicals. Lope de Vega theatre has always been linked with musical shows and in its early days great figures of the Spanish "copla" music hall genre performed on its stage. Over the years, the theatre has undergone a series of refurbishments to enable it to stage large-scale musicals like Les Misérables and Beauty and the Beast.  The biggest and most extensive refurbishment took place in 2011 to allow the theatre to host the most successful musical in Spain, The Lion King, currently being performed here.

Teatro Reina Victoria

Carrera de San Jerónimo, 20, 28014 Madrid

Based in a modernist style building, the huge picture window in the lounge is its most distinctive feature. The theatre opened to the public in 1916 with the vaudeville show "El capricho de las damas". After a disappointing beginning with the genres of operetta and zarzuela, the theatre continued to evolve and eventually became one of Madrid's specialist high comedy theatres.

Teatro de la Zarzuela

Calle Jovellanos, 4, 28014 Madrid

La Zarzuela theatre was conceived as the setting for a single genre, zarzuela. Over its many years of history, this theatre has been devastated by fire, had several owners and has staged performances of opera, dance and flamenco. It was declared a National Monument in the late 1990s and following renovation work that recovered its original structure and layout, La Zarzuela is once again a theatre for its genre, zarzuela.