Museo del Prado and Palacio Real - Madrid

Museo del Prado

Hardly any European capital has as many art galleries and art collections as Madrid. Undoubtedly, the Museo del Prado is the best known and belongs to the most important museums of the world.

There are others like the Museo Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, just to mention only the most important ones.

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The Museo del Prado houses about 3,000 paintings and 700 sculptures. You also find drawings, prints, coins and many other artefacts. The collection of paintings includes works by Titian, Velázquez, Goya, Barocci, Bosch, Durer, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Rubens, Botticelli, Van Eyck, Rembrandt and many others.

At the time of our visit, two temporary exhibitions with art work from Rogier van der Weyden and Picasso could be visited.

Unfortunately filming was not allowed. Only the top floor we were allowed to make some short shots. Here, one has rebuilt the cloister of the adjacent monastery San Jerónimo el Real, after it had already been severely damaged by Napoleon’s troops.

In between, statues of Isabella of Portugal and her son Philip II are exhibited. From here you can also take a brief look at the work of the restorers, who work on the top floor.

Palacio Real

After a fill of art, we decide to visit the Palacio Real – the royal palace.

Upon entering the palace you reach the huge main courtyard. It is bounded to the north by the palace, to the west by the Casa de Campo, the former royal hunting ground and to the south by the Catedral de la Almudena.

Already in the sumptuously appointed staircase you will be received by the King, in the pose of Cesar with laurel wreath.

We go quickly to the first floor, pleased to be allowed to film like in the royal palace in Brussels. But the joy came to an end here already. Great prohibition signs and any amount of guards make us quickly forget our filming ambitions.

The palace with more than 2000 rooms and halls was one the biggest palaces of his time. The pomp inside and the wealth which it radiates, can already be referred to as decadent. The builders, the Bourbons Philip V and Charles III probably adopted Louis XIV, the Sun King, as a role model. And this at a time, when Spain already was in the process of decline, because the revenue from the overseas colonies dried up.

Today, the palace is only used for representation purposes. The rest of the time, parts of the palace are a museum, accessible to the public.