In which city is the Prado Art Gallery?

The Prado Art Gallery is in Madrid, Spain. Its official name is the Museo Nacional del Prado, and it stands on the Paseo del Prado in central Madrid.

The museum opened to the public in 1819 as the Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures. Its collection grew from artworks assembled by Spain’s royal family, giving the Prado exceptional strength in Spanish royal and court painting. The building was designed by architect Juan de Villanueva during the reign of Charles III.

The Prado is especially famous for works by Spanish artists such as Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, and El Greco. Velázquez’s Las Meninas and Goya’s The Third of May 1808 are among its best-known masterpieces, alongside major works by Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, and Hieronymus Bosch.

A common mix-up is confusing the Prado with Madrid’s other major museums. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Reina Sofía are also located along Madrid’s celebrated Paseo del Arte, but the Prado is the institution chiefly associated with Spain’s historic European painting collection. The Reina Sofía, by contrast, is known for modern and contemporary art, including Picasso’s Guernica.