The Reina Sofía Museum and «Guernica»
Madrid's great modern art museum and the story of Picasso's most famous painting.
The essentials
- The Reina Sofía National Art Centre Museum is Madrid's great museum of 20th- and 21st-century art.
- Its most famous work is Picasso's «Guernica» (1937), on display here since 1992.
- It stands next to Atocha station, at the southern end of the Art Walk.
- Opening times, prices and free hours change: check them on the official website.
A museum of modern and contemporary art
The museum occupies the former San Carlos General Hospital, a large 18th-century building next to Atocha. It opened as an art centre in the 1980s and in 2005 unveiled Jean Nouvel's extension, with its large red roof, which houses temporary exhibitions, the library and an auditorium. The glass lift towers on the façade are one of its best-known images.
The collection covers art from the late 19th century to the present: Picasso, Dalí, Miró, Juan Gris, María Blanchard, Julio González and the avant-garde, post-war art and contemporary movements.
Picasso's «Guernica»
Pablo Picasso painted «Guernica» in 1937, commissioned by the Spanish Republican government for its pavilion at the Paris International Exposition, after the bombing of the Basque town of Gernika in April that year. It is an oil painting in black, white and greys measuring about 3.5 by 7.8 metres, one of the great anti-war statements in the history of art.
The painting spent decades outside Spain. It arrived in Madrid on 10 September 1981, was first shown in an annex of the Prado Museum (the Casón del Buen Retiro) and in 1992 moved to the Reina Sofía, where it hangs on the second floor of the Sabatini building alongside its sketches and preparatory studies.
Planning your visit
- TimeTwo hours are enough for «Guernica» and the main collection; a whole day if you also want the temporary exhibitions.
- TicketsBuy at the official box office. There are free-entry hours.
- MetroAtocha and Estación del Arte (line 1); commuter trains at Atocha.
- Combine itWith the Prado, the Thyssen and the Royal Botanical Garden, a few minutes' walk away. See the Art Walk.
Around the museum
A few steps away you have Atocha station with its tropical garden, CaixaForum with its vertical garden and the Lavapiés district for lunch. See all the museums in Monuments and museums.