20 museums in Madrid that you don't know and can't miss
Madrid is a cosmopolitan city, we have all walked its streets and bars on many occasions. We have been sightseeing in its neighborhoods and we know all its museums, or so you thought until now.
In Sparker we are sure that Madrid can still surprise you with some of its hidden treasures and if we talk about all the museums that awat your visit, we are waiting for your Spars to show and tell us what you think.
These are the 20 museums in Madrid that you probably don’t know.
1 Lázaro Galdiano Museum
This museum was created in 1951 and is administered by the Lazaro Galdiano Foundation located at 122 Serrano Street. Consists of more than 12,000 pieces collected by the editor José Lazaro Galdiano who died in 1947 donated along with his residence to the State. Among its treasures we can find pieces by Goya, El Greco, Murillo, Zurbarán… and even the painting on board ‘The young Savior’ made in the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30h to 15h
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2 Naval Museum
Museum created in 1843 and administered by the Ministry of Defense. It is located on the second floor of the Navy Headquarters on Paseo del Prado. Each room is arranged chronologically and contains maps, models, instruments, paintings, weapons, uniforms and flags, including the map of Juan de la Cosa, considered the oldest representation of the American continent, dating back to 1500.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 10h to 19h
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3 Royal Armoury of Madrid
The origin of the Royal Armory dates back to the 16th century and is located on the first floor of the Royal Palace. Along with the Imperial Armory of Vienna and the Royal Palace of Turin, it is considered one of the best collections of weapons in the world. This collection includes weapons, implements, trophies of the various kings of Spain, as well as diplomatic gifts such as the belongings of Emperor Charles V with which Titian immortalized him in the famous portrait on horseback in the battle of Mühlberg.
Opening hours: From October 1st to March 31st from 10h to 18h every day of the week. From 01 April to 30 September from 10h to 20h every day of the week.
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4 National Museum of Anthropology
Museum created in 1875 and managed by the Ministry of Culture, which offers a vision of the cultures that populate the five continents. It is located at number 68 of Alfonso XII Street. The origin of this collection became from the pieces of the Segovian doctor Pedro González Velasco together with later donations, purchases, expeditions… that add up to a total of 21.000 pieces of extraordinary anthropological value.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30h to 20h. Sunday and holidays from 10h to 15h
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5 Museum of Romanticism
This museum, created in 1924, is managed by the Ministry of Culture, which displays an important collection of historical, artistic and traditional objects of the nineteenth century focused on the peculiar aesthetics of romanticism. It is located in the old palace of the Marquis of Matallana at 13 San Mateo Street. This museum is organised as a House Museum where with each room, to the furniture, paintings, textiles, photographs … make us feel like what could be the life of a bourgeois family of the time.
Opening hours: From November to April from Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30h to 18:30h, Sundays and holidays from 10h to 15h From May to October from Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30h to 20:30h, Sundays and holidays from 10h to 15h
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6 Chamberí metro station. Platform 0
This subway station, created in 1919, was closed in 1966 and it is located on line 1 between the Iglesia and Bilbao stops. Its closure allowed the interior to remain “suspended in time”, preserving its decoration, litter garbage cans and original turnstiles. It was museumized in 2008.
Opening hours: Thursday to Sunday from 10h to 14h Friday and Saturday from 10h to 19h
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7 Museum of Garment - Ethnologic Heritage Research Center
Museum managed by the Ministry of Culture and located in the University City at Avenida Juan de Herrera 2. It consists of several collections ranging from historical, contemporary and traditional clothing, as well as an important collection of jewelry and accessories. It highlights the important collection of 20th century designers such as Fortuny, Pertegaz, Pedro Rodriguez, Givenchy, Paco Rabanne… all of them trend setters.
Opening hours: Temporarily closed for refurbishment until spring 2021
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8 Museum of the Americas
This museum was created in 1941 and is managed by the Ministry of Culture. It is composed of 25000 archaeological, ethnographic and artistic pieces from the Paleolithic to the present time of the American continent. Is located in” the University City of Madrid in the avenue of the Catholic Kings number 6. The amplitude, quality and the antiquity of the pieces of the collection, place it among the most complete museums on the American continent.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30h to 15h, Thursday from 9:30h to 19h Sunday and Holidays from 10h to 15h
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9 Black World African Museum
Museum created in 1985 by the Comboni Missionaries with the aim of bringing African culture and art to Europe through objects from sub-Saharan Africa. Located at 101 Arturo Soria Street. In this museum we will be able to make a “trip” for Africa of the hand of three great thematic blocks: Way of life, art and music and masks.
Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 9:30h to 13h, Sunday from 11:30h to 13h.
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10 Sorolla Museum
State museum inaugurated in 1932 and located in the artist’s studio, at the Paseo del General Martínez Campos. The museum preserves the original atmosphere of the painter’s house and has the largest collection of the artist. It is the most complete and best preserved house-museum in Europe and if the complete collection were not enough, just the visit to the house itself and the garden designed by Sorolla, is worth the visit.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30h to 20h Sundays and holidays from 10h to 15h
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11 Geomineral Museum
Museum created in 1926 with the aim of studying and disseminating the Spanish geological, mineralogical and paleotological heritage. Is located in the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain at 23 Rio Rosas Street. The museum houses a large collection of minerals, rocks and fossils from Spain, its former colonies, as well as important deposits from different parts of the world.
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday from 9h to 14h
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12 Museum of History of Madrid
Museum created in 1929 and located on Fuencarral Street in the Royal Hospice of San Fernando whose main facade is considered one of the most representative works of Spanish civil baroque. The museum is a journey through the history of Madrid since it was declared capital of Spain in the sixteenth century and has 14 rooms with a variety of themes with a large loan of works from the Prado Museum.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10h to 19h.
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13 National Museum of Decorative Arts
Museum created in 1913 and managed by the Ministry of Culture. It is one of the richest and oldest museums in Madrid in which in its 60 rooms shows the evolution of the so-called “minor arts” such as furniture, ceramics, glass, textiles … from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries with 1.600 objects of the 70.000 it has on deposit. The museum is located in a palace near the Retiro Park in Montalban Street 12.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30h to 15h Thursday until 19h Sunday from 10h to 15h
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14 Ratón Pérez museum
House-museum dedicated to the famous character created by Luis Coloma (and homologous to the tooth fairy around the world) in which children can enjoy a tremendously charming and evocative space like a fairy tale with a model of the house of Ratón Pérez. Located at number 8 Arenal Street.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday from 11h to 14h and from 17h to 20h Saturday from 11 am to 20h
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15 Cerralbo museum
Museum created in 1944 and managed by the Ministry of Culture in which 50.000 objects are guarded between antiques, sculptures, furniture, paintings and engravings gathered by Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa and among which works of El Greco, Zurbarán, Tintoretto or Van Dyck stand out. Is located in a unique nineteenth-century palace declared a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1962.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30h to 15h Thursday from 17h to 19h. Sunday from 10h to 15h
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16 Grassy’s Ancient Clock Museum
Inside the Grassy jewelry store located in Gran Vía 1 we can enjoy a sample of the beginning in mechanical watchmaking. Created in 1953, today we can contemplate impressive pieces of watches from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century of extreme uniqueness.
Opening hours: Visits by appointment only, by phone or email at +34915321007 and info@grassy.es.
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17 Typhological Museum
Museum inaugurated in 1992 and managed by the ONCE foundation in which unlike the rest of museums, the pieces are intended to be touched, especially by blind or severely visually impaired people. Located at 18 La Coruña Street. The museum consists of 3 rooms, a room dedicated to typhological material in which different Braille instruments are shown, another one with models of national and international monuments and another one with works by blind or severely visually impaired artists.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday from 10h to 15h and from 16h to 19h
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18 House-Museum of Lope de Vega
House - Museum created in 1935 year in which it was declared National Monument as a representation of the typical house of the XVII century. In this house the poet lived the last 25 years of his life. Located at number 11 of Cervantes Street. In addition to being able to enjoy the different rooms of a typical house of the XVII century it is possible to contemplate several works yielded by the Museum of the Prado.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10h to 18h for guided group tours by reservation.
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19 Reverte Coma Museum of Forensic Anthropology
Museum opened in 2009 and dedicated to medical anthropology, forensic, paleopathology and criminalistics located in the faculty of medicine of the Ciudad Universitaria metro station in the Plaza de Ramón y Cajal. This museum has approximately 1.500 pieces and a collection of about 800 skulls which those most representative of the collection are being exposed, having been grouped into different sections under the headings of: History of Research, Forensic Odontology, Criminalistics, Forensic Anthropology, Anthropological Evolution, Paleopathology, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnobotany and Historical Mummifications.
Opening hours: Visit by appointment by email or phone +34 913 94 15 78 / 11 16 / 11 17. museoafp@med.ucm.es / museos@ucm.es
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20 Alameda Castle
This castle - fortress is located in the neighborhood of La Alameda de Osuna and musealized in 2010. Is the only medieval fortress that survives in Madrid and was restored to help to know a little more about this part of the history of Madrid. It is also declared of Cultural Interest.
Opening hours: Open only on weekends from 10h to 20h in summer and from 10h to 18h in winter.
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