The Museo Nacional
Centro de Arte Reina Sofía ("Queen Sofia National Museum Art Centre")
is a national museum of Spain of 20th-century art. This museum was inaugurated on
September 10, 1990. It is located near the metro stations and Atocha train in
Madrid.
The Museum of the Reina
Sofia depicts Spanish art. The museum includes an excellent collection of two
of the greatest 20th-century masters of Spain, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso.
Guernica is the most famous masterpiece of this museum, a painting art piece by
Picasso of 1937.
The museum offers various
international and national exhibitions in its galleries. The Museum of the
Reina Sofia is one of the largest museums of contemporary and modern art. Due
to the COVID-19 pandemic, it succeeded in attracting only 1,248,480 visitors, a
decline of 72 per cent compared to 2019. But, this is still ranking sixth on the
world's most visited museums list.
Hospital
The building of The
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is located on the site of first ever
General Hospital of Madrid. King Philip II was the one who centralized all the
hospitals scattered throughout the court. King Ferdinand VI decided to build a
new hospital because the facilities were not sufficient for the city in the
eighteenth century. The museum's building was designed by renowned architect
José de Hermosilla and one of his successor Francisco Sabatini, who made a huge
contribution.
Then in 1805, after
various work stoppages, this building assumed the function it had been built
for. This building started its work as a hospital, although one-third of the
planned project by Sabatini was completed yet. After, it has undergone numerous
additions and modifications. And, in 1969, it was closed down as a hospital.
Art
museum
Extensive modern
additions and renovations to the old structure were made beginning in 1980. The
main building of the museum was a hospital in the 18th century. The building
functions as the Art Centre (Centro de Arte) from 1986 until built as the Museo
Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in 1988.
In 1988, sections of the new museum were made accessible for the general
public, mostly in a temporary form that the same year it was ordered by the
Ministry of Culture as a national museum. Its architectural stature was
radically changed in 1989 by Ian Ritchie with three glass circulation towers.
Expansion
An expansion of about 8
000 square meters costing €92 million was designed by a French expert architect
named Jean Nouvel. This expansion was opened for visitors in October 2005. This
expansion includes space for temporary exhibitions, a 200 seat auditorium,
administration offices, a bookshop, and a restaurant. Arau Acustica was the
consultant for acoustic studies, and Ducks scéno was appointed as the
consultant for scenographic equipment of auditoriums in this expansion.
Collection
The museum mainly
displays Spanish art. Its highlights include the excellent collections of the
two greatest 20th-century art masters of Spain, Salvador Dalí and Pablo
Picasso. Moreover, the most famous masterpiece is a painting by Picasso;
Guernica. The collection has artistic masterpieces by artists such as Jorge
Oteiza, Julio Romero de Torres, Julio González, Pablo Gargallo, Eduardo
Chillida, Juan Gris, Joan Miró, José Gutiérrez Solana, Antoni Tàpies, Pablo
Serrano, Luis Gordillo, and Lucio Muñoz.
Besides, International
art in the collection represents works by Alexander Calder, Francis Bacon,
Cindy Sherman, Damien Hirst, Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, Georges Braque, Henry
Moore, Clyfford Still, Jacques Lipchitz and many famous artists.
The museum gets opened
six days of the week with one day off, but there is a specific opening timing.
We have enlisted the opening and closing time of the museum below:
Monday 10
am to 8 pm
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday 10 am to 8 pm
Thursday 10 am to 8 pm
Friday 10 am to 8 pm
Saturday 10 am to 8 pm
Sunday 10 am to 10: 30 pm
So, if you want to visit
this amazingly beautiful museum, make sure to arrive at the timings mentioned
above.
The best time to go to
the museum exhibition is when the museum is least crowded.
So, the crowd increases when the exhibition is made available to visitors free of cost. The museum exhibition is free of charge on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and
Saturday from 7 pm to 9 pm, Friday from 7 to 11 pm, and Sunday from 3 pm to 7
pm.
Of all these free hours,
we suggest you visit the museum on Friday between 9 pm to 11 pm because, at
these timings, there is the fewest crowd.
How to buy tickets?
The exhibition capacity
of this museum is very limited. Provided the number of people visiting it, the
time spent waiting in a line might exceed even two hours. It might also be the
possibility that the tickets for that day are already sold out by the time you
happen to be at the ticket window; in that case, you can visit the rest of the
building or buy the tickets for the next day.
Museum ticket window
If you want to buy your
tickets for the same day, you need to wait in line and enter during the
indicated time slot. Anyhow, if the tickets are unavailable for that day, you
can purchase them for the next day from the advanced ticket sale window.
Online purchase
If you want to have an
advanced booking, purchase tickets from the online website. In that case, you
need to ensure that if you are taking along kids under 18 or any other
individual capable of free entrance, you can avail yourself of free tickets at
the express ticket window in the museum, of course, by waiting in a line. You must have to show them the documented
evidence of eligibility for free entrance.
We hope that our guide
about one of the best places to visit in Spain, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid,
is helpful enough to answer your queries about the subject matter and
interesting enough to make you see the museum as soon as you can.