Reina Sofia Museum Tickets

Guernica hangs on Floor 2 of the Sabatini Building, in Room 205.10, and for most of its life in this museum nobody was allowed to photograph it. That ended in September 2023, when director Manuel Segade permitted photos without flash, a decision taken to normalise the visit instead of having guards spend the day watching phones. The Reina Sofía is Spain's national museum of twentieth-century art, and in 2025 it drew 1,601,732 people to its main site. Nearly two thirds of them came in on a free slot or a discount.

What will you see inside the Reina Sofía?

The collection runs from the late nineteenth century to the present and is built around Picasso's Guernica, which hangs in Room 205.10 on Floor 2 of the Sabatini Building. Around it sit deep holdings of Dalí and Miró, roughly 25,000 works in total, and a rotating programme of temporary exhibitions across two buildings.

Guernica arrived in Madrid under escort on 10 September 1981 and went on show at the Casón del Buen Retiro behind bulletproof glass. It moved into this building in 1992, when the Reina Sofía opened as the national museum of twentieth-century art, and it has stayed put since. The photography rule changed in September 2023: the phone can come out, with no flash, no tripod and no selfie stick.

The rest of the collection is not a supporting act. It has been assembled since 1894 and now runs to some 25,000 pieces, weighted towards Spanish art with a strong international presence and a particular pull towards Latin America. Dalí and Miró are held in depth. Floor 4 opened in 2026 with a re-presentation of the years from 1975 onward, much of it rarely shown before.

Temporary shows run alongside. Through 2026 the programme carried Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Sweet Revenge to 12 October, Blanca Sánchez in Milk, Snow, Tear, Hand to 9 October, and a dialogue with the South African artist Dumile Feni titled History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Does Rhyme. Look at what is hanging before you fix a date.

Two satellite galleries in El Retiro belong to the museum as well, the Palacio de Velázquez and the Palacio de Cristal, both free to enter. The Palacio de Cristal is temporarily closed for works, so treat the park as a bonus rather than part of the plan.

How do Reina Sofía tickets work, and which one should you pick?

General admission is €12, a combined ticket with the audio guide runs €18 to €19, and an annual ticket that lets you return all year costs €18. Entry is free Mondays and Wednesday to Saturday from 19:00 to 21:00, and Sundays 12:30 to 14:30, but you still need to collect a ticket for those hours.

The free evening is real and it is popular. Of everyone who came through the main site in 2025, 62 per cent entered on a free slot or a discount, and the single busiest day of that year brought 12,380 visitors through the doors. Free access is for individuals only, so groups cannot use it, and there are set free days too: 18 April, 18 May, 12 October and 6 December.

What a paid daytime slot buys is room to stand still. Guernica is quieter at 10:30 than at 19:30, the Floor 4 rehang takes patience, and a timed ticket means the ticket desk is not part of your afternoon. If your dates are fixed, it is worth taking a moment to check availability using the booking panel above.

One practical tip from the museum itself: if you already hold an online ticket, use the Nouvel Building entrance on Ronda de Atocha rather than the Sabatini door. Conditions for the reduced categories and the current programme sit on the official Reina Sofía site.

Reina Sofía, Prado or Thyssen: which one if you must choose?

Pick the Reina Sofía if modern and contemporary Spanish art is what you came for, and above all if you want to stand in front of Guernica. Choose the Prado for old masters and sheer depth, the Thyssen-Bornemisza if you want seven centuries covered in one manageable visit. All three sit within a short walk.

The gap between them is wider than the walk suggests. The Prado took 3,513,402 visitors in 2025 against 1,601,732 here and 1,003,455 at the Thyssen-Bornemisza, and it stops at roughly 1900. This museum picks the story up there and runs it through the civil war to the present.

Two museums over two days is the honest advice. Three in a row is a known way to stop seeing anything by mid-afternoon, and the Tuesday closure here breaks the sequence for anyone who planned around a Monday-shut city. If all three are the plan, the Paseo del Arte pass costs €32.80 against €41 bought separately and stays valid for a year.

How long do you need at the Reina Sofía?

Two hours covers Guernica, the rooms around it and a decent run through the Spanish moderns. Give it three if you want the 2026 rehang on Floor 4 and a temporary show as well. Galleries clear 15 minutes before closing, so an evening free slot works out closer to 100 minutes than two hours.

A route that holds up: start on Floor 2 of the Sabatini Building while your attention is fresh, since that is where Guernica and the rooms feeding into it are, then work through the Spanish moderns before the light and your patience go. Floor 4 and the years after 1975 come next, and the Nouvel Building carries the temporary exhibitions and the café, which makes it the natural place to stop.

Two things surprise people. The galleries are held at 21 degrees for conservation, so a layer is worth carrying even in August. And storage is tight: lockers are limited and often full, suitcases are not allowed at all, and handbags have to fit inside 40 by 30 by 10 centimetres. Arrive without luggage rather than plan around the cloakroom.

Know before you go: hours, the Tuesday closure and getting there

The main site opens Monday and Wednesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 21:00, and Sundays from 10:00 to 14:30. It closes every Tuesday, which catches out anyone who assumes the city's museums shut on Mondays. There are two entrances: the Sabatini Building on Calle Santa Isabel and the Nouvel Building on Ronda de Atocha.

Beyond the weekly Tuesday closure, the museum shuts on 1 and 6 January, 1 May, 15 May, 9 November and 24, 25 and 31 December. The two spring and autumn dates move with the Community of Madrid's working calendar, so confirm them if your trip lands nearby. Galleries are cleared 15 minutes before the doors shut.

Getting there is easy from anywhere central, and the museum keeps three public cycle parking stations outside its two entrances. From further out, a single Zone A metro ticket runs €1.50 to €2.00 and a ten-trip ticket €7.30. Children under 14 have to be accompanied by an adult throughout.

What can you pair with the Reina Sofía nearby?

The two obvious pairings are the other Art Walk museums, both about ten minutes away on foot: the Prado for old masters and the Thyssen-Bornemisza for everything in between. CaixaForum Madrid sits on the same stretch of the Paseo del Prado behind its vertical garden, and El Retiro holds the museum's own park galleries.

For a two-museum day that leaves you standing, do this one in the morning and the Thyssen-Bornemisza after lunch, since it is the smaller collection and the easier afternoon. If old masters are the priority instead, the Prado is ten minutes north up the boulevard. The Paseo del Arte pass covers one visit to each of the three permanent collections and holds good for a year, so a third museum can wait for a later trip.

For something cheaper and shorter on the same walk, CaixaForum Madrid runs rotating exhibitions behind its living wall of plants, and the Palacio de Velázquez in El Retiro shows this museum's own programme at no charge. On a Tuesday, when the main site is shut, those two are the sensible substitutes.

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