The Golden Triangle, the free hours, and the small museums locals keep quiet about
Madrid holds one of the great concentrations of painting on earth — Velázquez, Goya, Bosch, Picasso's Guernica and the Thyssen's seven centuries, all within a fifteen-minute walk down one boulevard. The trick most visitors miss: nearly every major museum has free hours, and the small house-museums — a painter's garden, a preserved Romantic mansion, a marquis's cabinet of curiosities — are often the visits people remember longest.
Every entry below names the best barrio to sleep in for it. Base yourself in Huertas and the whole Golden Triangle is your morning walk; base in Chamberí and you'll have the Sorolla garden before breakfast.
Velázquez's Las Meninas, Goya's black paintings, Bosch's Garden — allow a full morning. Free 18:00–20:00 daily (Sun 17:00–19:00), but the paid morning slot is calmer.
Guernica and the room that contextualises it are worth the visit alone; Dalí and Miró fill the wings. Free most evenings 19:00–21:00 — queues move fast.
The collection that fills every gap between the Prado and Reina Sofía — Impressionists, German Expressionists, American moderns. Free Mondays 12:00–16:00.
Spain's painter of light, hung in his own home and Andalusian garden. €3, free Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings — the city's best small museum.
Europe's largest functioning palace plus the new Royal Collections Gallery cut into the escarpment beside it — armour, Stradivarius, carriages and all.
The Lady of Elche, Visigothic crowns and a superb renovation — the great under-visited museum of Spain, on Calle de Serrano.
Two preserved mansions: the Romanticismo's garden café in Chueca, and the Cerralbo's chandelier-heavy ballroom near Plaza de España. €3 each.
Philip II's monastery holds a Patinir-and-Bosch collection, the Pantheon of Kings and the frescoed library — a full museum day, an hour from the city.