Casa de las Artes, Member of Meliá Collection

Matadero Madrid is the Centre for Contemporary Creation of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Madrid City Council. Created in 2006, Matadero is located in the city’s former slaughterhouse and cattle market, an area of great heritage and architectural value, with an enormous personality and a focal point for Madrid’s citizens. Its different halls host an extensive programme of exhibitions, theatre, festivals, live music, cinema and audiovisual projects, conferences, talks and workshops, residencies for artists, educational programmes and activities for families.

Located on the Art Walk, this wonderful museum holds a vast collection that traces the history of European painting from the Middle Ages right through to the late 20th century. Italian primitives, the German Renaissance, 19th-century American art, Impressionism, German Expressionism and Russian Constructivism are the most widely represented schools and movements in the museum, whose impressive collection boasts over 1000 works of art.

Home to the Kings of Spain from Charles III to Alfonso XIII, Madrid's Royal Palace takes us on a journey through the history of Spain. Though it is no longer the royal family's home, it continues to be their official residence. Long before Madrid became the capital of Spain, Emir Mohamed I chose Magerit (the city's Arabic name) as the site for a fortress to protect Toledo from the advancing Christians. The building was eventually used by the Kings of Castille until finally becoming what would be known as the Antiguo Alcázar (Old Fortress) in the 14th century. Charles I and his son Philip II turned the building into a permanent residence for the Spanish royal family. However, in 1734 a fire burnt the Palace of Los Austrias to the ground, and Philip V ordered the construction of the palace that stands today.

The Prado Museum, which commemorated its 200th anniversary in 2019, is the crown jewel of one of the city’s most popular tourist itineraries: the Paseo del Arte, where you'll also find the Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofía museums. The Prado's walls are lined with masterpieces from the Spanish, Italian and Flemish schools, including Velázquez’ Las Meninas and Goya’s Third of May, 1808. Its collection comprises 8,600 paintings and over 700 sculptures, so we recommend deciding what you want to see before stepping into the museum. If you are short on time, the Prado's website suggests three itineraries, lasting 1, 2 and 3 hours and covering the museum's most important masterpieces.

El Retiro area was declared UNESCO World Heritage as Cultural Landscape in 2021, which includes the Paseo del Prado between Cibeles and the Plaza de Atocha, the whole of El Retiro Park, and the Jerónimos neighbourhood. El Retiro Park is the real star of this neighbourhood, bordered by Calle de Alcalá and Calle O’Donnell to the north, Doctor Esquerdo to the east, Avenida del Mediterráneo and Paseo de Reina Cristina to the south, and Calle de Alfonso XII to the west. The park was developed under the Catholic Monarchs, in the early sixteenth century, but the neighbourhood itself is much younger. With an increasingly larger population in the late nineteenth century, the city expanded. The layout of Retiro is similar to that of neighbouring Barrio de Salamanca, featuring perpendicular streets with wide pavements, some of them embellished as attractive boulevards, like Ibiza or Alcalde Sainz de Baranda. It’s basically a residential area but, being so close to the centre of Madrid, it’s borrowed some of its business and shopping character.

The Reina Sofía Museum is home to a large collection of modern and contemporary Spanish art renowned throughout the world. Inside find works by Dalí, Miró and Juan Gris, alongside the museum’s masterpiece, Guernica. One of Malaga-born sculptor and painter Pablo Picasso’s most significant works of art, it was painted in memory of the suffering experienced during the bombing of Guernica on 27 April 1937 in the Spanish Civil War.

This bustling square located bang in the centre of Madrid is one of the city’s most famous sites. With its semi-circular shape, it's a junction for many of the city’s historical and busiest streets such as Calle Mayor, Calle del Arenal, Calle de Alcalá and Calle de Preciados, as well as the starting point for all major radial roads in Spain. Originally the site of one of the city’s gates, Puerta del Sol should be at the top of your list of places to visit. Sitting atop the Casa de Correos building, the current headquarters of the Madrid regional government, you’ll find the famous clock that all eyes turn to on the last day of the year. For over a century now tradition has it that people across the country usher in the New Year by eating 12 lucky grapes as the twelve chimes of midnight are struck by this clock.