Heritage/Madrid/San Lorenzo de El Escorial
El Escorial reopens its painting and architecture museums after ten years
A €3.1 million renovation puts around 100 works by Titian, Tintoretto, Van der Weyden and Ribera back on view, 21 of them for the first time.
MSMarta Sanz, heritage and travel writer
· 2 min
- What
- Painting Museum and Architecture Museum
- Where
- Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid region
- Cost
- €3.1 million
- On show
- About 100 paintings, 21 never shown before
- Region
- Madrid
Sources appear in the margin next to the paragraph they support.
Patrimonio Nacional has reopened the Painting and Architecture Museums at the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, which had been closed to visitors for a decade. The €3.1 million renovation was funded mainly through Spain's post-pandemic Recovery Plan.1
The Painting Museum now shows around 100 works from the Italian, Flemish and Spanish schools, including paintings by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Rogier van der Weyden, Luca Giordano, Jusepe de Ribera and Michiel Coxcie. Twenty-one works are on permanent display for the first time.1
Four centuries of royal collecting
The new display tells the story of how the Royal Collections were built up over four centuries. Philip II made El Escorial an artistic centre by bringing major religious works from his collection to the monastery; later monarchs, among them Philip IV, Charles II, Charles IV and Isabella II, added paintings from the leading European schools.1
Highlights include Coxcie's Allegory of the Redemption diptych, by the painter known as the “Flemish Raphael”, and Van der Weyden's Calvary. Nearly a third of the works on show were restored for the reopening.1
Checked by Marta Sanz against 1 source. Something wrong? Tell the desk · Corrections
Marta Sanz is a heritage and travel writer based in Madrid. Marta studied art history at the Complutense University and has guided visitors through Madrid's museums for a decade before moving into journalism.