The story of this place
Opened in 1819 as the Royal Museum in a neoclassical building meant for natural history, the Prado displays the collection amassed by Spanish monarchs over three centuries. It holds the world's greatest concentration of Velázquez—including 'Las Meninas,' whose gaze pulls the viewer into a royal studio—and of Goya, from radiant court portraits to the nightmarish 'Black Paintings' and the execution scene 'The Third of May 1808.' Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights,' beloved of Philip II, hangs alongside El Greco, Titian and Rubens. In the Civil War, staff evacuated the masterpieces to Valencia and Geneva to save them from bombing—one of history's great art rescues.