Salón de Reinos

This Spanish City Is Getting A Brand-New Art Museum

Originally part of the Buen Retiro palace complex built for Philip IV in the 1630s, this former grand ceremonial hall – once decked out with 24 royal coats of arms and 27 stunning paintings – is being transformed into a 9,500-square-metre extension of the Museo del Prado that will showcase more of the museum’s collection and host major temporary exhibitions. After a stint as a military museum, the building is finally getting a glow-up and returning to its original purpose as a space for the arts, with collaborating architects Norman Foster and Carlos Rubio restoring its seventeenth-century façade while adding a modern atrium entrance and potentially pedestrianising Calle Felipe IV to help create an all-walkable ‘Prado campus’. Inside, plans include a sleek new floorplan with a ground-floor café, a shop and event spaces, plus panoramic lifts whisking visitors to galleries across multiple levels, and although delays – including archaeological finds – mean it won’t open until 2027, it sounds like it will be worth the wait. - Isabel Gil