If you only plan to visit a couple of culturally rich sites in Madrid , the Prado Museum must surely be none of them.
The Prado's building has its origins back in 1785 when Charles III commissioned the architect Juan de Villanueva to design a natural-science museum.
Amazingly it contains one of the most important art collections in the world including works by El Greco, Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, and Spanish masters such as José de Ribera and Francisco de Zurbarán. There are also important works by Hiëronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Raphael, Tintoretto, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Paolo Veronese, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Anthony Van Dyck and Antoine Watteau.
It is located in Calle de Ruiz de Alarcón, 23,which lies in the southern part of central Madrid and is easily accessible by Metro, head for either the Cibeles or Artocha Metro stations.
Since January (2012) the Prado Museum is open every day of the week. The opening hours have also been updated: Opening hours From Monday to Saturday: 10am - 8pm. Sundays and holidays: 10am - 7pm Museum Closed: January 1, May 1, and December 25. Reduced opening hours: 10am - 2pm January 6, December 24 and 31. The galleries are cleared 10 minutes before closing time.
Ticket Prices are. General price: 12 Euros, General admission + official guide: Euros 22 Euros, Reduced price: 6 Euros . The ticket allows the holder to visit the museum collection and temporary exhibitions on the same day .
Google Earth offer High Resolution Pictures of the Prado Museum's best paintings
For those art connoisseurs or museum buffs out there that haven't yet had the privilege to have visited the world famous Prado museum in Madrid, can now see a large selection of the works housed at the museum on Google Earth.
With a resolution of 14,000 megapixels (or about 1,400 times the definition of a standard 10 megapixel camera) the images of the 14 Prado masterpieces are so precise that even the individual brushstrokes can be seen, and according to the museum you can see details that the human eye alone is unable to see - amazing!
Google Earth's satellite and aerial photograph technology is proving invalid for us Internet travel freaks and this case is no exception. You can now explore every brush stroke ( literally ) in the masterpieces of such artists as Bosch, Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez, Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt. Fourteen of the gallery's finest masterpieces can now be seen online in unbelievable detail.
Google as yet has no plans to extend its project with the Prado museum or include more of the 1.000 or so works or art currently on view .
To see the high resolution pictures and the Prado museum on the Google Earth programme you will first have to download it via the Google web site.
The GUGGENHEIM Museum - Bilbao
If you do ever get to visit Bilbao then a visit to the Guggenheim Museum must be on your itinerary of visits. This quite fantastic work of art is situated at Abandoibarra Et. number. 2 48001 in Bilbao.
It was designed by the North American architect Frank O. Gehry, a quite unique Museum represents an amazing construction feat. On one side is the Nervión River, 16 meters below the level of the rest of the city of Bilbao. One end is pierced through by the huge Puente de La Salve, one of the main access routes into the city.
The building itself is an extraordinary combination of interconnecting shapes. Orthogonal blocks in limestone contrast with curved and bent forms covered in titanium. Glass curtain walls provide the building with the light and transparency it needs. The glass walls were made and installed to protect the works of art from heat and radiation. The half-millimetre thick titanium panels covering most of the building are guaranteed to last one hundred years... quite amazing.
The whole design creates a quite spectacular structure which is as interesting as any work of art you will find inside, and with a surface area of some 24.000 square meters and more than
50 meters in height I would leave yourself plenty of time to amble around this beautiful building.
The Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday ( Monday Closed ) from 10 am to 8 pm with a cost of 10.50 Euros for Adults , children under 12 accompanied by an adult
enter FREE. There are group discounts and FREE guided tours being offered Tuesday to Sunday
Morning: 11:00 a.m. and 12:30 a.m.
Afternoon: 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Guided tours are offered in Basque, Spanish and English. Please check with our Information Desk for desired language availability. Advanced ticket sales can be obtained
via the official Guggenheim website
Casa de las Ciencias
La Coruña.House of Science
Paseo Marítimo, s/n -15002 -A Coruña
The House of Sciences was the first public-owned interactive museum in Spain.
The small palace in Santa Margarita's Park houses a planetarium and three exhibition halls devoted to
physics, temporary exhibitions and scientific topics.
FREE Admittance on these dates
Carnival (Feb 20, 2007)
Easter (Apr 9, 2007)
"Science on the street" Day (May 5, 2007)
Day of the museums (May 18)
Rosary Virgin Day, local holiday
(Oct 7) Science week (in Nov, 2007)
Parc de Montjuïc, s/n
08038 Barcelona -
Tel. (34) 934.439.470
Fax. (34) 933.298.609
Opening hours
Tuesdays to Saturdays
10.00 - 19.00 (October-June)
10.00 - 20.00 (July-September)
Thursdays 10.00 - 21.30
Sundays and public holidays 10.00 - 14.30
Mondays (except public holidays) Closed
Miró's works are to be found today in the world's principal museums and cultural institutions. Many, however, have remained in Catalonia, mostly in the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona
Throughout his life, Joan Miró took a particular interest in the diversity of materials, forms and colours. It led him to explore and experiment with different art forms such as painting, sculpture, printing techniques, ceramics, the theatre, and tapestry.
One result of this was a collaboration with Josep Royo, an innovative craftsman, who during the seventies aroused Miró's interest in tapestry and textiles.
Works in this room: : The Foundation Tapestry. 1979
The Museum of Modern Arts was created by the Diputació of Tarragona in 1976 with the purpose of preserving and showing its artistic patrimony.
The Diputació collections were actually started at the beginning of the sixties, upon acquiring all the works by the sculptor Julio Antonio that had been kept by his sisters.
From that time on, and with the advic of Lluís M. Saumells, director of the School of Arts of Tarragona other collections were purchased, namely those by the sculptors Santiago Costa i Vaqué, Salvador Martorell i Ollé and the painter Josep Sancho i Piqué.
Since 1943, yearly at first, and biyearly later on, the Diputació awarded the Julio Antonio Prize of Sculpture and the Josep Tapiró Prize od Painting, eeping the winnimh works. Some of them were kept as deposits in other institutions, and, at one time, some were sold for reasons unknown. All in all, and for the most part, the winning works have been displayed in the Diputació premises. In 1976, and following the moving of the Workshop and School of Arts From Santa Anna St. to its new location in Sant Pere Sescelades, part of the Casa Martí, the previous seat of the school was made aviable.
The Museum of Art Noveau and Art Deco was opened on April 6th 1995 and soon became one of the most frequented
museums in Castile and Leon with an average 120,000 visitors a year.
For the last ten years, the Museum and its patron Manuel Ramos Andrade have received numerous awards in gratitude for their commitment towards culture and tourism. Most noteworthy are the following: the Paul Harris Fellow and Blasón de tourism de Castilla y León, in 1996; the Máster de Popularidad, in 1997; and the City Gold Medal, in 1998.
Among its many distinguished visitors, His Royal Highness Felipe de Borbón y Grecia visited the Museum in May 1997. During the 15th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Salamanca in October 2005, Her Royal Highness Queen Sofía and the First Ladies of the countries participating in the Summit made a private visit to the Museum.
The illustrious visitors admired the collections of chryselephantines and dolls of the Manuel Ramos Andrade Foundation and notably paid closer attention to the jewels and scent bottles. The First Ladies took numerous photographs of the building during their visit.
Museo
Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid - Natural Sciences Museum ( Website only in Spanish but well worth a look )
C/José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2. 28006 Madrid (ESPAÑA).
TEL: +34 91 411 13 28
The Natural Science museum is undoubtidly one of the best in Spain and provides excellent exhibitions
and informaton on every aspect of the natural world.
C/ Cadenas de San Gregorio, 1, 2 y 3.
47011 - Valladolid (Spain).
The items making up the collection bear eloquent witness to the quality achieved by artists in Spain from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. The works preserved in the Museum express a world of international relations, of changing influences and artistic geniuses, leading to a rich heritage of fundamental importance in the cultural context of Europe.
The original core of the collections stems from the convents disentailed in Valladolid and its surrounding area. The historic importance of the city in past ages lies at the heart of the significance of the artistic creations housed here, the fruit of a long tradition in patronage and protection of the arts. In addition to these contributions, there are many donations, loans and in particular acquisitions by the State with a view to completing an overall view of Spanish sculpture with all of its subtleties, within a geographical context extending beyond the Iberian Peninsula.
Opening Hours
From the 21 September to the 20 March; Tuesday - Saturday:
10:00 to 14:00 and from 16:00 to 18:00 hours.
From the 21 March to the 20 September; Tuesday - Saturday:
10:00 to 14:00 and from 16:00 to 21:00 hours.
Sundays and holidays from 10:00 to 14:00 hours.
Closed on Mondays and on the following local and national holidays: January 1st and 6th, May 1st, September 8th, December 24th, 25th and 31st.
Plaza Eduard Maristany, s/n. Vilanova i la Geltrú. 08800. Barcelona. España Telephone: + 34 938 158 491 Fax: + 34 938 158 220
The Museum is located in the historic steam locomotive depot of Vilanova i la Geltrú. It tries to show in an innovative and active way the universe of trains and their extremely important role in the contemporary world.
Rates
Individual: 4 euros
Reduced Individual Rate: 2,50 euros ( Students, Children from 4 to 12 years of age, elderly Persons). Saturday - FREE ADMISSION
