Museo del Prado

The Museo del Prado on the Paseo del Prado is one of the world's great painting museums, holding the former Spanish royal collection. The Neoclassical main building, designed by Juan de Villanueva from 1785 as a natural-history cabinet, opened as the Royal Museum under Ferdinand VII in 1819. Its roughly 8200 paintings include Velazquez's Las Meninas, almost the entire output of Francisco Goya - including the Black Paintings and the Third of May 1808 - and key works by El Greco, Titian, Rubens, Bosch (Garden of Earthly Delights) and Duerer. An extension by Rafael Moneo, opened in 2007, houses temporary exhibitions. Drawing around 3.5 million visitors a year, the Prado remains the anchor of the Paseo del Arte and the defining Madrid art experience.