Discover World-Class Museums Throughout Spain

Whatever your taste in art and culture, Spain has an enticing selection of museums to enrich your visit.

For blockbuster art museums, there’s the “Golden Triangle” Madrid. The three “sides” of the triangle--the Prado, Reina Sofía National Art Museum and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum—are all within walking distance of each other. Together, their collections add up to a comprehensive stroll through the history of Spanish painting and sculpture. But that’s not all.

In addition to works by Spanish artists, visitors to the Prado can see paintings and sculptures by European masters such as Reubens, Rembrandt and Tintoretto. The Reina Sofía, with its encyclopedic collection of Spanish art from the late 19th century up until today, also features works by international artists including Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Henry Moore and Jean Dubuffet. And the private collection at the Thyssen-Bornemisza encompasses works by artists from the 14th century through surrealism and pop art of the 20th century.

A charming counterpoint to Madrid’s larger museums is the Sorolla Museum, dedicated to just one painter, Joaquín Sorolla. Best known for his seascapes of his native Valencia, Sorolla also painted a series of murals representing the provinces of Spain for the Museum of the Hispanic Society in New York. In addition to the works displayed, the artist’s former studio, complete with his easels, garden and home all provide the visitor with a sense of the painter’s personality, his lifestyle and his origins.

Barcelona also boasts numerous and varied museums. The building of the Fundación Joan Miró, designed by architect Josep Sert, is on top of Montjuich Mountain with a view of the city. With its bright white exterior, exhibition spaces of various sizes and shapes and a sculpture garden on the terrace, it’s considered an architectural masterpiece. The exhaustive collection of paintings and sculptures is the largest of Miró’s works in the world. The visitor’s eye can’t help being intrigued by the artist’s colorful, fanciful paintings and sculptures of other-worldly forms, beings and heavenly bodies such as stars.

A totally different experience unfolds when you descend from Montjuich to Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, which was built over the Roman city of Augusta Barcino. From the street level of Barcelona’s City Museum in the Placa del Rei, there’s no clue to the fascinating sights below. Relatively recent excavations have revealed the paths of the ancient Roman streets, remains of buildings, mosaics, and wall paintings. A stroll along the walkway that winds among these ancient ruins offers a real sense of how the Roman city functioned.

Nearby, on Montcada Street, also in the Gothic Quarter, a few blocks from where the artist lived as a child and an art student, the Picasso Museum reveals yet another layer of the city’s art history. Housed in five houses and palaces on one of medieval Barcelona’s most imposing streets, the museum offers an in-depth collection of the master’s early paintings and a fascinating collection of 58 works related to Picasso’s “Las Meninas” series, inspired by the painting of the same name by the 17th century painter Diego Velázquez.

Picasso enthusiasts will also want to make a stop in Málaga, where the artist’s daughter-in-law, Christine, and grandson, Bernard, have donated 204 works to the Museo Picasso, which is ensconced in a 16th century building. The collection includes paintings, sculpture, ceramics, drawings and graphics.

Another important museum center is Bilbao, in the Basque region in the north of Spain. The opening of the building of the Guggenheim Bilbao, with is shining, curved titanium surfaces, designed by architect Frank Gehry, catapulted the area onto the world art scene in 1997. The permanent collection consists of postwar, contemporary and avant garde works by an international representation of artists including Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Serrra and Antoni Tàpies of Barcelona.

When in Bilbao, also take time to check out the Fine Arts Museum (Bellas Artes), with its impressive selection of works by Spanish artists such as Sorolla, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Francisco Zurburán, as well as a diverse group of non-Spanish painters including Mary Cassatt, Paul Gauguin and Francis Bacon.

From Bilbao, it’s not far to San Sebastian, where you can see the imposing “comb of the wind,” a 30-ton steel sculpture by Basque artist Eduardo Chillida that’s perched on the beach coast of the Cantabrian Sea in San Sebastian. To see more of the sculptor’s monumental works, you can make an excursion to Chillida’s farm in Hernani, where 40 of his sculptures are interspersed among magnolia trees on twelve acres of lush countryside.

Tired of going to art museums? Even the most avid appreciators of fine art sometimes crave a change. So for a respite, head for the Museum of Wine Culture, located in Briones in La Rioja. Once you’ve toured the exhibits and learned all about wine-making through the ages, and enjoyed the paintings and other art works related to wine, the museum restaurant will welcome you with a selection of menus, each one accompanied by the Dinastía Vivanco wine made at the winery on the premises.

For information on all of these museums, visit the Spanish National Tourist Office website, www.spain.info . Click on “what to do,” then “art and culture,” and “museums.”