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Abanico El Prado, Madrid ICOM Spanish Arts www.bbc.co.uk Prado Museum, Madrid

Art lovers have a veritable feast of museums to satisfy their appetite in Madrid, the most famous being el Museo del Prado, el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and la Fundación Thyssen Bornemisza, all located within walking distance from each other in a cultural golden triangle.
Each museum has its own particular focus. El Prado opened in 1819, and is situated by the tranquil setting of El Parque del Retiro. The museum houses the largest collection of Spanish paintings in the world, including masterpieces from Goya, El Greco and Velázquez.
The Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza was a Swiss industrialist and art collector. He began the collection that forms the bulk of the works at la Fundación Thyssen Bornemisza in the 1920s, and his son established the foundation as a gift to the Spanish people in 1992. The museum includes paintings from the great Flemish and Italian artists such as Caravaggio and Rubens.
El Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, named after the wife of King Juan Carlos, specialises in contemporary Spanish and European art from the 20th century. Picasso's famous painting Guernica, an epic depiction of the bombing of this town in the Spanish Civil War, occupies pride of place in the museum, alongside other works from modern Spanish masters Miró and Dalí.
Visiting the museums couldn't be easier. For one price, visitors can buy un abono paseo del arte, a special voucher allowing you to visit all of these three first class museums once at any time during a calendar year. Visitors may also purchase una tarjeta anual múltiple, an annual multiple ticket. This allows you to visit these three museums as many times as you want during one year.
Outside Madrid there are many other museums to choose from. Barcelona celebrates the great Catalan artists at La Fundación Joan Miró and at El Museo Picasso, a collection of the early work of the city's favourite son. There are several museums in Spain honouring surrealist artist Salvador Dalí - one of the main ones is El Teatre-Museu Dalí in his home town Figueres, which celebrates his dramatic work.