Art and Culture
Most museums in Madrid are free at least three full days each year: May 18 (aptly, International Museum Day), October 12 (Hispanidad [Hispanicity] Day), and December 6 (Constitution Day).
Spain's most popular tourist attraction and home to a collection of Spanish art that spans five centuries, the 14th to the 19th, the Museo del Prado (Prado Museum) is free in the evenings. Tuesday through Saturday, admission is waived from 6 to 8 p.m. On Sundays, the Prado is free from 5 to 8 p.m. The museum is always free for those under 18, over 65, and the unemployed. Stop by to see classics by Goya, Velásques, Rubens, El Greco, Bosch, and many more masters. As there's so much to see, follow one of the museum's three routes past the most iconic of its works.
Housed in a 16th-century hospital, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (National Museum and Art Center, Queen Sophia) is Spain's premier modern-art gallery. Trace the history of Spanish art from the 20th century forward, from representational art to the vanguard of Picasso and Gris's cubism to Dalí's surrealism and everything in between. Picasso's Guérnica is housed here, returned to Spain in 1981 as Picasso stipulated once democracy returned after Franco's death in 1975. Admission is free Saturday afternoons from 2:30 p.m and on Sunday mornings until 2:30 p.m.
Once an electric power station (1899) that now seems to levitate over its plaza, the Caixaforum Madrid, one of Madrid's newest landmarks, is a sociocultural center that hosts art exhibits, film screenings, lectures, and musical performances. It's free to go inside, check out an exhibit, and marvel at the building's cutting-edge architecture and the "living" plant wall outside. Some family and educational programs are free; some charge an admission fee of 4 euros. Schedules and event listings are available on Caixaforum's site.
Formerly the headquarters of the Royal Guard, the 215,000-square-foot municipal Centro Cultural Conde Duque is home to libraries, an artisanal press, the museum of contemporary art, and performance space. The lectures, concerts, and exhibits it hosts are free and open to the public but for a few shows.
The Museo Arqueológico Nacional (the National Archaeology Museum), affectionately known as M.A.N. is free Saturday afternoons and all day Sunday. Stop by to see a replica of the stunning prehistoric Altamira cave paintings; the Lady of Elche, a bust of a 5th-century Iberian woman; an elaborate astrolabe from 11th-century Islamic Spain found in Toledo; plus Greek vases, Roman mosaics, Visigoth votive crowns, and many other fascinating items.
Madrid's Museo Taurino (Bullfighting Museum) traces the history of the controversial sport from ancient times to the present day through gory objects (the traje de luces [literally, suit of light] Manolete was wearing when he was gored to death at age 30) and cultural artifacts including Goya's painting of a matador.
The Museo de América (the Museum of America) contains over 25,000 pre-Columbian, ethnographic, archaeological, and colonial objects, tracing the history of Spain's turbulent relationship with the American continent from its discovery to the contemporary era. Admission is free each Sunday.
