The Prado National Museum in Madrid

Ranked among the foremost art galleries in the world, a paradise for art lovers and an absolute must-see for any visitor to Madrid, the Prado Museum sits magnificently on a large leafy Paseo del Prado running through one of the city's most alluring districts. Commissioned by Charles III in the late 18th Century, it was established during the rule of Fernando VII on 19 November 1819 and was then known as the Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture. After the monarchy in Spain had been dissolved, it became national property and was renamed the Prado National Museum.

Its vast collection currently consists of 8,600 works of art housed in two adjacent edifices, the Villanueva Building where the greater part of the collection is kept, and the Cason del Buen Retiro. The present holdings of the museum come either from the royal collections of the old Trinidad Museum or were gathered through donations, acquisitions and bequests. El Prado is credited as being the world's largest art museum. Needles to say, one day isn't enough time to explore all the treasures housed within its walls – you will need to decide what you want to see most and save the rest for the next trip.

Works on display represent all major schools of western art. The museum boasts masterpieces from the Italian school, including paintings by Andrea Mantenga, Rafael, Sandro Botticelli, Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, Lorenzo Lotte, Verones, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and most of all, Tiziano. A superb collection of early Flemish painting encompasses works from Hans Memling, Rogier van der Veyden and Jochim Patinir to Quentin Metsys, Hieronymus Bosch (great tryptych 'The Garden of Delights') and Peter Brueghel, while the Flemish school is represented by Rubens and Anton van Dyck. Among the German, French and Dutch artists whose art pieces can be admired in El Prado are Lucas Cranach, Albert Dürer ('Adam and Eve', 'The Self-Portrait'), Rembrandt, Nicolas Poussin, Claudio de Lorena. There are also masterworks from great artists belonging to the Spanish school, such as Bartolomé Bermejo, Luis de Morales, El Greco, Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez, Juan B. Maino, José de Ribera, Caudio Coello, Francisco de Zurbarán, Luis Meléndez, Esteban Murillo, Zuloaga and Joaquin Sorolla.

Particularly noteworthy is the museum's impressive collection of major paintings by Velázquez, including 'Las Meninas' (Maids of Honor) and 'Las Hilanderas' (Spinners). Likewise, of special value and interest are Goya's superb portraits as well as genuinely amazing and haunting works from his Black Period. So famous is the museum's collection of pictures that not eveyone is aware of El Prado's other treasures that are well worth seeing – 700 sculptures, about 5,000 drawings, 2,000 prints, around 1,000 coins and medals and nearly 2,000 decorative objects and works of art.