Madrid · Calle de Santa Isabel · Modern art
Reina Sofía Museum: tickets, hours and how to visit
Spain's national museum of modern art, in an old hospital with an extension by Jean Nouvel. Check the hours and choose your ticket.
Today
Opening hours for every month are on the Opening hours page.
Checked against the official website on 31 October 2026 · Official source
In short
- The Reina Sofía Museum is open Monday and Wednesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 21:00, and on Sundays from 10:00 to 14:30. It is closed on Tuesdays. The last entry is 30 minutes before closing.
- Individual visitors enter free from 19:00 to 21:00 on the days with long opening hours, and on Sundays from 12:30 to 14:30. You still need a ticket, and you can book it online.
- You can choose an entry ticket or a guided tour of 75 minutes, in English or Spanish.
- Bags up to 40 x 30 x 10 cm are allowed, carried in front. Suitcases and large backpacks are not.
A hospital that became a museum
The building was the General Hospital of Madrid. King Charles III ordered it, and only part of the original plan was ever built. It worked as a hospital until 1969, and it escaped demolition to become the Reina Sofía Art Centre, which opened on 26 May 1986.
Two glass towers by Ian Ritchie were added in 1989, and Jean Nouvel's extension opened in 2005. The permanent collection is divided between the old Sabatini building and the Nouvel building.
Guernica and the art of the twentieth century
Picasso's Guernica is the work to look for first. It spent years abroad and arrived in Spain in 1981, and it has been in the Reina Sofía since 1992. Around it you find Dalí, Miró, Juan Gris, Julio González and Tàpies, and international names such as Kandinsky, Magritte, Rothko, Warhol and Bacon.
In the courtyard of the old hospital stands a sculpture by Miró, the Oiseau lunaire.
Which ticket for the Reina Sofía?
Know what you want to see? The entry ticket is enough. Do you prefer someone to guide you through a big modern art museum? Take the 75-minute guided tour. Want a free visit? Go in the last two hours of the day.