The glorious Spanish capital is awash with cultural venues – so many that we named it one of the best cities in the world for culture – but Madrid’s most magnificent, the Museo del Prado, is about to get even bigger.
Just five minutes from its main building, the Salón de Reinos will be a 9,500-square-metre extension, which will not only showcase more of the Prado’s sprawling art collection, but also be some to some major temporary exhibitions.
Originally part of the Buen Retiro palace complex, built for Philip IV back in the 1630s, what will become Salón de Reinos was once a grand ceremonial hall decked out with 24 royal coats of arms and 27 stunning paintings – many of which now live in the Prado. After serving as a military museum, this building is finally getting a glow-up, returning to its original purpose as a space for the arts.
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The Salón de Reino has been in the works for a while, with the project officially kicking off in 2022 after it became the responsibility of collaborating architects Norman Foster and Carlos Rubio. However, due to several issues, including stumbling across some archaeological remains, it’s been held up several times and won’t open to the public until 2027.
But it sounds like the Salón de Reinos will be worth the wait. Foster and Rubio’s proposal includes plans to restore the building’s original seventeenth-century façade while adding a modern atrium entrance, as well as potentially pedestrianizing Calle Felipe IV, creating an all-walkable ‘Prado campus’ linking the museum’s key sites.
As for the interiors, we can expect to see a sleek new floorplan that includes a ground-floor café, a shop and event spaces, with panoramic lifts whisking visitors to galleries across multiple levels. Here are some images of what the space could look like.
Even with the grand opening still a couple of years away, we’re excited for this one. In the meantime, have a look at the paintings in Madrid that you must see.
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