Madrid's golden triangle

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Wondering where to go this summer? Louis Byrne finds an art lover's paradise in Madrid

While many in search of cultural stimulation pay their homage to the Catalan capital of Barcelona, the wiser among us know better! The true spirit of Spanish art is to be found in the national capital Madrid and, in particular, within a small area at the heart of the city. ThePaseo del Arte, to be found just off the major thoroughfare of thePaseo del Prado, contains three of Europe's most important art collections: Il Museo del Prado, the home of the nation’s largest general collection of Spanish and Western art; Il Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, housing the its modern collection; and Il Museo Thyssen-Bournemisza, a vast private collection.

Madrid is a tourist's dream. Avoided in August owing to the intense heat, and because most Madrilenos have fled the city for the coast or the cooler climes of the north, it offers a clean, safe and relatively cheap environment in which –taking advantage of the city's excellent public transport system –to see art and architecture spanning 500 years. From Phillip II's austere yet magnificent Monasterio de San Lorenzo el Escorial, no more than an hour by train from the capital, to the three new rascacielos (skyscrapers) just north of the city, Madrid is both ancient and modern in its scale and scope.

The golden triangle, covering no more than a 10-minute tree-shaded walk, is the perfect way to spend a cultural excursion to Madrid. Disembarking from bus number 27 at the Fountain of Cibeles, now the focus of national celebration every time the Spanish football team wins a major championship, it is a short and pleasant stroll to the first and grandest of the city's art museums. Formally a royal palace, El Prado runs down the east side of Madrid's grandest multi-laned boulevard. With two grand entrances at either end, suitably named ‘Goya’and ‘Velazquez’, there is invariably a queue, albeit fast moving.

Any wait is well worth it, for this museum boasts a huge collection of paintings from several of its royal collections. Most tourist activity is around the French, Dutch and Italian paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries. But this is all a mere taster for the grand Velasquez Rooms and the mighty Las Meninas, worth the visit on its own. In fact the whole museum is worth more than one sortie, and some of the tourist passes available for entry into all three museums allow you to return as often as you like.

Crossing back to the west side of El Paseo del Prado, hidden amount the trees and buildings that adjoin it, you find thePalacio de Villahermosa, a state palace given to the aristocratic Thyssen-Bournemisza family as a sweetener to prevent them from removing their impressive and eclectic art collection from the country in the 1990s. It now houses that collection in a beautifully calm and well-appointed hang. The collection is arranged over three floors in a traditional time line from early Italian to contemporary works. In addition to its obvious interest for art lovers, this is a fine example of the collecting habits of the European nobility –and of those who marry into it. The Baron's original collection is now augmented by his widow's, a former Miss Spain, who continued the 'loan' of the whole collection to the state in 1999.

Just south, passing Atocha, the city's primary railway station and the site of the memorial to the citizens killed in the 2005 bombings, lies the former hospital and now the home of the city's modern art collection, La Reina Sofia. Criticized by many, and certainly not the ideal setting for an art museum, still retaining the feel of a home for the infirm, it hosts the star attraction in Picasso's Guernica. This is a mammoth stark and disturbing canvas, a testament to the brutality of fascism, in particular the blanket bombing of the eponymous Basque town by the Luftwaffe in support of Franco's nationalist attack on the democratically elected Republican state. The scale of the work is daunting and time is well spent scanning the content and noting every detail. This is helped by the countless drawings that surround it, demonstrating the artist's meticulous preparation for a work that was aimed for the World's Fair in Paris in 1937 in the midst of the Spanish Civil War.

Throughout the ensuing Franco dictatorship the painting was safely guarded by the Americans, who ironically offered little support to the anti-fascists during the war, in New York's Museum of Modern Art. Guernica was returned to post-fascist Spain in 1980 and housed in the new Reina Sofia rather thanEl Prado, for which Picasso had intended it. Nevertheless its current location, bright and spacious, with attendant guards, affords it the respect and deference it deserves.

Few Western cities can offer such a collection of collections! And these are just the main attractions in a city that is rich in art museums and other collections both permanent and temporary. On El Paseo del Prado en route to the Reina Sofia stands the striking edifice of the La Caixa Forum, sponsored by a leading Spanish bank. On the day I visited there was a free exhibition featuring William Blake, and other financial institutions and insurance companies regularly arrange small yet significant exhibitions covering the oeuvres of Spanish and overseas artists, in addition to themed exhibitions: all of them free to visit. Spanish newspapers and tourist guides list the current exhibitions and their locations.

The only barrier to the pleasures awaiting the visitor is the cost of entrance to these collections – gone are the days, not too distant, when a pass was available for all three museums at a nominal cost. Today the less generous offer of €21 covers the individual charges for a single visit, and for a little more an unlimited pass can be bought. But both state owned collections are now offering free entry in the evenings and Saturdays, and even the Thyssenis now opening its doors free of charge for a few hours on Mondays too