Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid)

Reina Sofía museum (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS)), commonly known as the Museo Reina Sofía, is a museum of 20th-century and contemporary art, based in Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain.

It was based in the former General Hospital of Madrid, a large 18th-century neoclassical building located in the Atocha station area, near the Estación del Arte Madrid Metro station. This hospital was initially designed by José de Hermosilla Sandoval and later continued by Francesco Sabatini, and is currently known as the Sabatini building in honour of this Italian architect.

The museum itself was opened in 1992, although the building had already hosted temporary exhibitions in previous years. In September 2005, the institution’s facilities were expanded with the opening of the Nouvel building at the beginning of the Ronda de Atocha.

The Reina Sofía is the southern vertex of the so-called Art Triangle of Madrid, which includes two other famous museums: the Prado museum and the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum. It is part of the so-called Landscape of Light, a cultural landscape declared a World Heritage Site on July 25, 2021.

Collection

The museum is mainly dedicated to Spanish art. Highlights of the museum include collections of Spain’s two greatest 20th-century masters, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. Certainly, the most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picasso’s painting Guernica. The Reina Sofía collection has works by artists such as Joan Miró, Eduardo Chillida Juantegui, Pablo Gargallo, Julio González i Pellicer, Luis Gordillo, José Victoriano González-Pérez, José Romano Gutiérrez-Solana, Lucio Muñoz, Jorge Oteiza Enbil, Julio Romero de Torres, Pablo Serrano Aguilar, and Antoni Tàpies.

International art represented in the collection include works by Francis Bacon, Joseph Beuys, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Alexander Calder, Robert Delaunay, Max Ernst, Lucio Fontana, Sarah Grilo, Damien Steven Hirst, Donald Clarence Judd, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Yves Klein, Fernand Léger, Jacques Lipchitz, René Magritte, Henry Moore, Bruce Nauman, Gabriel Orozco, Nam June Paik, Man Ray, Diego Rivera, Mark Rothko, Julian Schnabel, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Clyfford Still, Yves Tanguy, and Wolf Vostell.

Expansion

An 8000 m2 (86,000 ft2) expansion costing €92 million designed by French architect Jean Nouvel opened in October 2005. The extension includes spaces for temporary exhibitions, an auditorium of 500 seats, and a 200-seat auditorium, a bookshop, restaurants and administration offices.

Other facilities

Reina Sofía has other two places where several exhibitions usually take place. These are the Crystal Palace and the Velázquez Palace, both in Retiro Park.

Address: C. de Sta. Isabel, 52, Centro, 28012 Madrid, Spain.

Working hours:

Thursday 10 AM–9 PM
Friday 10 AM–9 PM
Saturday 10 AM–9 PM
Sunday 10 AM–2:30 PM
Monday 10 AM–9 PM
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday 10 AM–9 PM

Free admission days

Monday 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.Wednesday-Saturday 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Sunday 12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Holidays: April 18, May 18, October 12, and December 6

Ticket prices:

General / Online: 12 €. This ticket includes the visit to the whole Museum.

Two visits, on different days over one year / Online: 18 €.