Prado Museum guided tour

The Prado Museum is home to thousands of paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures dating from the 12th Century right up to the present day.

Highlights include Hieronymus Bosch’s enigmatic triptych altarpiece The Garden of Earthly Delights, the meaning of which has evaded scholars for centuries. Is it a warning against succumbing to temptation or a celebration of sexual abandon? Make up your own mind as your guide talks you through some of the key highlights in this huge museum, which boasts the world’s largest collections of Bosch, Titian, Goya and more.

Goya’s brutal meditation on the horrors of war is depicted in The Third of May 1808. Not for the faint of heart, it captures the spirit of Spanish resistance in the face of Napoleon’s occupying forces during the Peninsular War.

Other must-see works include Rubens’ depiction of the Three Graces of Greek mythology, and the illusory Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, considered his masterpiece and indeed one of the most important paintings in Western art history.

After your tour, you’re free to roam the museum until closing time, and there’s so much great art to see here you could easily make a whole day of it.