Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain

The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS, also called the Museo Reina Sofía) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated in 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía.

The museum is mainly dedicated to Spanish art. Highlights of the museum include excellent collections of Spain's two greatest 20th-century masters, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. Certainly, the most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picasso's painting Guernica. The Reina Sofía collection has works by artists such as Joan Miró, Eduardo Chillida, Pablo Gargallo, Julio González, Luis Gordillo, Juan Gris, José Gutiérrez Solana, Lucio Muñoz, Jorge Oteiza, Julio Romero de Torres, Pablo Serrano, and Antoni Tàpies.

International artists are few in the collection, but there are works by Francis Bacon, Joseph Beuys, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Alexander Calder, Robert Delaunay, Max Ernst, Lucio Fontana, Damien Hirst, Donald Judd, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Yves Klein, Fernand Léger, Jacques Lipchitz, René Magritte, Henry Moore, Bruce Nauman, Gabriel Orozco, Nam June Paik, Man Ray, Diego Rivera, Mark Rothko, Julian Schnabel, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Clyfford Still, Yves Tanguy, and Wolf Vostell.

Along with its extensive collection, the museum offers a mixture of national and international temporary exhibitions in its many galleries, making it one of the world's largest museums for modern and contemporary art.

It also hosts a free-access library specializing in art, with a collection of over 100,000 books, over 3,500 sound recordings, and almost 1,000 videos.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

Shaneil Narsey (2 years ago)
Reina Sofia is a must visit for anyone who likes modern art. Museum's are quite subjective depending on personal preference and I only had a small selection of works I wanted to see so went after 7pm (free entry) which gave 2hrs to see what I wanted. Of course a must see is Picasso's Guarnica which is incredible. There's actually quite a few Picasso works, Dali and Miro so a couple of hours is plenty to see them. If you prefer modern art over classical, do Reina Sofia over Prado.

gee (2 years ago)
Not impressed. Staff is very rude and the museum has some stupid rules. The guard and two other staff members kept chasing me, because I had a 1.5 litre bottle of water with me. Since when is bringing water with me a problem? Just let me enjoy the art. Needless to say that none of these folks talks english. So I had to return to the cloakroom and leave my water there. Most of the art pieces are cool, there are a few great, that's it. And half the museum was closed when I visited. There is a nice garden, though.

macedonboy (2 years ago)
I'm not a major fan of contemporary art,but I still loved visiting Reina Sofia museum. Viewing Guernica in person is a major bucket list item and I wasn't disappointed. There wasn't as much Picasso or Dali paintings as I was expecting. Note that after 7pm, entry to the museum is free. Doing that gives roughly two hours in the museum, which is not enough. To get free entry, queue up at the ticket office from about 6.30pm and queue in the direction of the exit of the museum complete. Do not queue in the direction of the museum building entrance, else you'll have to re-queue. I saw several people do that. Give me a thumbs up if that was useful information.

Amanda Montemayor (2 years ago)
Very mediocre in my eyes... I’ve been to other modern art museums and was able to appreciate the art there more. At least it was free for students 25 and under... I also felt very observed; every time we walked into a room they would follow us in. I’ve been to museums with more valuable art and never had that problem.

Glenn A. Jaspart (2 years ago)
This place is a must-see for whoever likes modern art. The design is by definition modern and makes you think of the Whitney Museum in New York. A lot of things to see (expect at least 4 hours to see everything). Very spacious rooms and not crowded at the end of the day. The bookstore is also nice. And the entrance is free for teachers.

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Cesis Castle

German crusaders known as the Livonian Brothers of the Sword began construction of the Cēsis castle (Wenden) near the hill fort in 1209. When the castle was enlarged and fortified, it served as the residence for the Order's Master from 1237 till 1561, with periodic interruptions. Its ruins are some of the most majestic castle ruins in the Baltic states. Once the most important castle of the Livonian Order, it was the official residence for the masters of the order.

In 1577, during the Livonian War, the garrison destroyed the castle to prevent it from falling into the control of Ivan the Terrible, who was decisively defeated in the Battle of Wenden (1578).

In 1598 it was incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Wenden Voivodship was created here. In 1620 Wenden was conquered by Sweden. It was rebuilt afterwards, but was destroyed again in 1703 during the Great Northern War by the Russian army and left in a ruined state. Already from the end of the 16th century, the premises of the Order's castle were adjusted to the requirements of the Cēsis Castle estate. When in 1777 the Cēsis Castle estate was obtained by Count Carl Sievers, he had his new residence house built on the site of the eastern block of the castle, joining its end wall with the fortification tower.

Since 1949, the Cēsis History Museum has been located in this New Castle of the Cēsis Castle estate. The front yard of the New Castle is enclosed by a granary and a stable-coach house, which now houses the Exhibition Hall of the Museum. Beside the granary there is the oldest brewery in Latvia, Cēsu alus darītava, which was built in 1878 during the later Count Sievers' time, but its origins date back to the period of the Livonian Order. Further on, the Cēsis Castle park is situated, which was laid out in 1812. The park has the romantic characteristic of that time, with its winding footpaths, exotic plants, and the waters of the pond reflecting the castle's ruins. Nowadays also one of the towers is open for tourists.

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