Explorer Madrid

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, founded in 1752, has had its seat since 1773 in the Goyeneche palace on Calle de Alcalá, remodelled in neoclassical style by Diego de Villanueva. Its museum shows Spanish and European painting and sculpture from the 16th to the 20th century, with works by Goya, Zurbarán, Ribera and Arcimboldo.

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum occupies the Villahermosa Palace on the Paseo del Prado, across from the Prado. It grew from the private collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza family, bought by the Spanish state in 1993, and covers European painting from the 13th century to Pop Art, including Italian primitives, Dutch masters, Impressionism, Expressionism and American art.

The Museo del Prado is Spain's national art museum, opened in 1819 in a neoclassical building on the Paseo del Prado designed by Juan de Villanueva. Built on the former royal collection, it shows European art from the 12th to the early 20th century, with large groups of paintings by Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Titian, Rubens and Hieronymus Bosch.

Museo Reina Sofía is Spain's national museum of 20th-century and contemporary art, near Atocha station, opened in 1992 in the 18th-century General Hospital building by Francesco Sabatini with glass lift towers added in 1989 and a 2005 extension by Jean Nouvel. Its collection includes Picasso's Guernica and works by Salvador Dalí.

The Madrid Wax Museum on Paseo de Recoletos, beside Plaza de Colón, opened on 14 February 1972. It shows more than 450 wax figures, most of them set in scenes, from Spanish and world history, politics, sport, film and children's stories, along with a horror section and an escape room.

The National Archaeological Museum was founded in 1867 by a decree of Isabella II and since 1895 has occupied the Calle de Serrano side of a neoclassical palace by Francisco Jareño, shared with the National Library. Its collections run from prehistory to the 19th century and include the Lady of Elche and the Visigothic votive crowns of Guarrazar.

La Neomudéjar is a centre for avant-garde and experimental art that opened in 2013 in the former railway workshops of the Madrid-Zaragoza-Alicante company beside Atocha station, a 19th-century brick building in the neo-Mudéjar style. It shows video art, urban art, performance and sound art, hosts artist residencies and keeps the engine that once powered the station.

The Museo de América is a national museum in Madrid's Ciudad Universitaria devoted to the archaeology, art and ethnography of the Americas. Founded in 1941, it opened in 1965 in a brick building with a tower by Luis Moya and Luis Martínez-Feduchi. Its collection includes the Madrid Codex, one of four surviving Maya books, and the gold of the Quimbaya Treasure.