Guernica
Picasso painted it in Paris in 1937 for the Spanish Republic's pavilion at the International Exhibition, in response to the bombing of the Basque town of Gernika on 26 April 1937. Older accounts call that a Nazi bombing. It was carried out by the German Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria, in support of Franco's Nationalists, and the Italian part is the detail usually dropped.
How the painting got here is the better half of the story and older accounts omit it entirely.
- It went to New York in 1939 and spent forty-two years in the custody of the Museum of Modern Art, touring until the damage from travelling made Picasso refuse further loans.
- Picasso's condition for its return was that democracy and public liberties be restored in Spain. He did not live to see it; Franco died in 1975, and the handover was negotiated through Picasso's lawyer Roland Dumas.
- It left MoMA in September 1981 — the museum closed to the public for the operation, and no insurer would cover the move, so it was done quietly — and landed in Madrid on 10 September 1981.
- It was first shown at the Casón del Buen Retiro, then an annexe of the Prado, from 25 October 1981, the centenary of Picasso's birth. It moved here in July 1992.
- Why it is not at the Prado: a Royal Decree of 1995 fixed 1881 — Picasso's birth year — as the dividing line between the two collections. Everything earlier belongs to the Prado, everything later to the Reina Sofía. That is the whole answer.
It was originally displayed behind armoured glass, under very heavy guard. One recent change matters for a visitor: photography of it has been permitted since 1 September 2023, after a ban that had lasted the painting's entire time in Spain. No flash, no tripods. Any account saying photography is forbidden is out of date.
Three paintings that are not here
Older accounts promise the visitor four Picassos in this building. Three of them are somewhere else, and one of those is on another continent.
- Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and has been since the late 1930s. A reader told they will "come upon" it here will not.
- The First Communion (1896) is in the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, given by Picasso himself in 1970.
- Science and Charity (1897) is also in the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, likewise a gift from the artist. Older accounts render it "Medicine and Caridad", a half-translation of Ciencia y Caridad.
The exception is Woman in Blue (1901), which Picasso painted in Madrid and which genuinely is in this collection. It came here in 1988 when the old Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art was broken up.
What is actually here
- Picasso beyond Guernica — the preparatory studies and Dora Maar's photographs of the painting in progress, which are shown with it and are a lesson in themselves.
- Salvador Dalí — The Great Masturbator, The Enigma of Hitler, Girl at the Window, and portraits that show how conventional a painter he could be when he chose.
- Joan Miró, across the long middle of his career.
- José Gutiérrez Solana, whose black, heavy scenes of Spanish provincial life are the find of the museum for most visitors and are almost unknown abroad. La tertulia del Café de Pombo is the one to look for.
- Juan Gris and the Spanish cubists, Julio González, Eduardo Chillida, Antoni Tàpies, and the post-war and contemporary floors.
The buildings, and a rehang to plan around
Three things were added to the hospital, and older accounts mention only one.
- The glass lift towers on the facade, which everyone photographs and which are the quickest way up, went in during the late 1980s, with the British architect Ian Ritchie credited for their design.
- Jean Nouvel's extension opened in 2005 and added roughly another half again to the museum — temporary exhibition galleries, the library and auditoria, around a great courtyard under a red cantilevered roof. Older accounts do not mention it at all, which means they are describing about two-thirds of the building.
- The Reina Sofía also runs two venues in the Retiro: the Palacio de Velázquez, open and free, and the Palacio de Cristal, which is closed for structural repairs until 2027.
The permanent collection is being rehung in three stages — the contemporary floor opened in February 2026, the mid-century floor is due in 2027 and the avant-garde floor in 2028. The practical consequence is that no floor plan or route printed anywhere will hold, and parts of the collection will be shut at any given time. The museum garden is also closed for maintenance.
Getting in
- It is closed on Tuesdays. This is the trap, because Tuesday is exactly when a visitor working round the other two museums might come.
- Sunday opening is short, mornings only, so the Sunday free window falls at midday rather than in the evening.
- Admission is charged, with the last two hours of each opening day free — and unlike the Prado, free-window tickets can be reserved online, which is worth doing.
- Free entry at any time for a long list of categories, collected in person at the desk on the day. A handful of additional free days fall through the year.
- The Paseo del Arte combined ticket covers this museum with the Prado and the Thyssen.
It stands beside Atocha station, at the southern end of the Paseo del Prado, about ten minutes' walk from the Prado.
General practicalities for the city are on the Madrid page.