3.8 million
Annual Visitors
22,000 works
Collection
2–4 hours
Recommended Visit
José Villanueva (18th-century hospital) · Ian Ritchie Architects (glass towers, 1990) · Jean Nouvel (extension, 2005)
Architect
About Museo Reina Sofía
The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art, located in Madrid near the Atocha train station. It is named after Queen Sofía and was inaugurated on 10 September 1992.
The museum is housed in the former Hospital General de Madrid, with two later additions designed by Jean Nouvel. The original building features two glass and steel exterior elevator towers that have become iconic.
Its permanent collection focuses primarily on Spanish art and is particularly strong in works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Joan Miró.
The museum forms part of Madrid's 'Golden Triangle of Art' alongside the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, with each institution covering different periods to provide a comprehensive view of Western art history.
Masterworks & Must-See Highlights
The works that define Museo Reina Sofía — and why they matter.
Guernica
Pablo Picasso · 1937
Room 206, Building Sabatini (2nd floor)
Picasso's shattering response to the Nazi bombing of the Basque town of Guernica on 26 April 1937. In monochrome, the 3.5 × 7.8 m canvas fragments the agony of civilians, animals, and a dying soldier into Cubist shards. The most powerful political painting of the 20th century.
The Great Masturbator
Salvador Dalí · 1929
Room 202, Dalí Collection
A hallucinatory Surrealist painting combining a melting self-portrait profile, a female torso, and swarming insects. It was painted in the year Dalí met Gala, who would become his lifelong muse and partner.
Woman in Blue
Pablo Picasso · 1901
Picasso Collection
A work submitted by Picasso to the National Exhibition in Madrid and rejected. The elongated blue-grey figure in fashionable dress anticipates Picasso's Blue Period and his emerging style.
Collections & Highlights
Frequently Asked Questions
A small ask before you go
You've just explored one of humanity's greatest collections of beauty. Art has the power to move us, inspire us, and change how we see the world. But millions of people will never see beauty like this — not because the art isn't there, but because they can't see at all.
Preventable blindness, caused by conditions like cataracts and trachoma, affects people of all ages across the world's poorest communities. A small gift — for the cost of a museum ticket — can provide a simple surgery to restore someone's sight and transform their life.