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Reina Sofia Museum

    Information

    An important landmark on Madrid’s famous Art Walk, the Reina Sofía Museum is home to a large collection of modern and contemporary Spanish art renowned throughout the world. Inside find works by Dalí, Miró and Juan Gris, alongside the museum’s masterpiece, Guernica. One of Malaga-born sculptor and painter Pablo Picasso’s most significant works of art, it was painted in memory of the suffering experienced during the bombing of Guernica on 27 April 1937 in the Spanish Civil War.


    Buy the Paseo del Arte Pass so you can enjoy Madrid's three most renowned museums at a reduced rate!


    New collection. Communicating Vessels. 1881–2021.

    After many years of research, the Reina Sofía Museum has reorganised its Permanent Collection in collaboration with almost all its departments, opening on 27 November 2021 with hundreds of new pieces thanks to donations, long-term loans and new acquisitions. The result of this reorganisation is a selection of around 2,000 pieces of art on display in various spaces within the Sabatini and Nouvel buildings. This overhaul invites us to completely rethink the entire Collection, which includes contemporary art from the eighties to the present day. The Museum has reorganised its permanent collection with the aim of offering narratives and experiences that speak to the present moment through a critical study of our common past, without claiming to be comprehensive or categorical. What takes precedence in this new arrangement is not the chronological order of events and works, but the relationships and genealogies that we can peel back or trace from our standpoint in the present.

    In this vein, the Museum has created eight thematic episodes, open to flexible temporalities and interdisciplinary perspectives, which combine to tell new stories:

    • 1.- Avant-Garde Territories: City, Architecture and Magazines
    • 2.- The Lost Thought
    • 3.- Enclosed Field
    • 4.- Double Exhibition: Art and the Cold War
    • 5.- Enemies of Poetry: Resistance in Latin America
    • 6.- A Drunken Boat: Eclecticism, Institutionalism and Disobedience in the ’80s
    • 7.- Apparatus 92: Can History Be Rewound?
    • 8.- Exodus and Communal Life

    The Building

    The Reina Sofia Museum is housed in a neoclassical building located in Atocha, which was formerly a hospital  facility (Hospital San Carlos) from the 16th century onwards, when Philip II decided to centralise the various hospitals scattered about the Court. In the 18th century, Charles III extended the building, working with the architects José de Hermosilla and, above all, Francisco Sabatini.

    The building underwent various modifications and additions until, in 1965, the hospital was closed. After being declared a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1977, restoration work began in 1980. In 1986, the Reina Sofia Art Centre opened, using the 1st and 2nd floors to house temporary exhibitions. The most recent modifications were carried out at the end of 1988, including the creation of the three glass and steel elevator shafts designed by British architect Ian Ritchie.

    The Permanent Collection was inaugurated on 10 September 1992 and it officially became a museum.

    The museum was extended between 2001 and 2005 by architect Jean Nouvel to create a larger exhibition space, also adding a library and an auditorium.

    The museum has two other sites in Madrid, the Velázquez Palace and the Crystal Palace, both in Retiro Park, which house temporary exhibitions and art installations created for these spaces.

     

    Services
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    Shop
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    Lockers / Cloakroom
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    Cafeteria
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    Library
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    Information points
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    Restaurant
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    Guided tours
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    Lift
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    Free Wi-Fi
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    Baby-changing facilities
    Last updated: 14/03/2023
    Practical Information
    Tourist Information
    Address
    Calle
    de Santa Isabel, 52
    28012
    Tourist area
    Paseo del Arte
    Telephone
    (+34) 91 774 1000
    Fax
    Metro
    Estación del Arte (L1)
    Atocha (L1)
    Lavapiés (L3)
    Bus
    001, 6, 10, 14, 19, 26, 27, 32, 34, 36, 37, 41, 45, 59, 85, 86, 102, 119, C1, C2, C03, E1, N9, N10, N11, N12, N13, N14, N15, N17, N25, N26
    Cercanías (local train)
    Madrid-Atocha
    BiciMAD bike-share scheme

    Docking stations:

    - Museo Reina Sofía, Calle Santa Isabel, 57

    - Ronda de Atocha, 2

    - Cuesta de Moyano

    Price

    General entry (entry to the Collection and temporary exhibitions): €10 (ticket office and online)

    General entry valid for two visits: €15 (ticket office and online)

    General entry combo (entry to the Collection, temporary exhibitions and an audioguide): 14.50€ (ticket office and online)

    Free entry for all visitors to the Museum Collection from Monday to Saturday, except Tuesdays, from 6pm-8pm, and Sundays from 1.30pm-2.30pm; on 18 April, 12 October and 6 December

    Paseo del Arte - Art Walk Pass (valid for the Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofía museums): €32

    Annual pass for state musuems: €36.06

    Free entry to Velázquez Palace and Glass Palace, both located in El Retiro Park

    Times

    Sabatini Building and Nouvel Building (Calle de Santa Isabel, 57)

    Mon, Wed, Sat: 10am-9pm

    Sun 10am-2:30pm.

    Closed: 1 and 6 January, 2 and 15 May, 9 November, 24, 25 and 31 December
     

    Velázquez Palace and Glass Palace (El Retiro Park):

        - Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec: 10am-6pm;

        - Mar, Oct: 10am-7pm;

        - April-Sept: 10am-10pm;

        - 24 and 31 Dec: 10am-5pm;

    Closed: 1 and 6 January, 1 May, 25 December

     

    Type
    Cultural venues
    Museums

    DISCOVER GUERNICA BY PICASSO

    Rethinking Guernica, a site developed by the Reina Sofía Museum, invites you to study Picasso's masterpiece up close.

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    CaixaForum Madrid

    This vibrant cultural centre is famous for its temporary exhibitions and its amazing vertical garden.
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