Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales

Very interesting historical site smack in the middle of Madrid. This monastery is still inhabited by Franciscan Clarisas nuns. I highly recommend buying entry tickets in advance. Guided tour provides a great amount of facts and insight about the history of the monastery. Beautiful art collection spread across the building including Rubens designed tapestries. One thing to note is that the building is not suited for handicapped people. Definitely worth a visit.

Beautiful collection of art, tapestries, and lots of history, very interesting place to visit. The guide was very knowledgeable about the art, but a little monotone. The place is incredible beautiful and clean; the nuns take care of it. Tickets are only 14€ for tourists but free for EU citizens.

If you've done it all in Madrid and want to mix it up, this place is interesting and has some breathtaking art. Make a reservation to make sure you can get in, and I would not recommend it if you don't speak Spanish. You must go with a guided tour, which focuses on the art and is only given in Spanish. Before I went, I was a bit worried by the reviews. I had a lovely time. Our guide, Antonio, was excellent. My recommendation is to, courteously, ask questions if you have them. He knows about everything in the museum. People who complained about time given to look at the art must have never taken a guided tour, or possibly they had a different tour guide. We had plenty of time, keeping in mind that you are on a schedule and have to finish in an hour. You can't stand and gaze for hours. Also, no one at all was rude to us. If you want to go with realistic expectations, though, here are my two complaints: 1. You cannot enter with any bags or backpacks. You must have a euro coin to put into a locker before going in. That's fine, but they will not give you change if you have bills. Just charge me an extra dollar for the entrance and have some spare coins on hand. Or just fix the lockers, like many Mercadonas have done, so that you don't need a coin. Overall, a very small complaint, but now that you know, go prepared! It will make your life and everyone else's easier. 2. The behavior of the other people on the tour. If the guide mentions a painting, don't be a jerk and run to the painting and stand right in front of it so no one can see. Several people did this. It was extremely annoying. These people were adults (so it was super weird). Reading other reviews, it sounds like the tourists were the problem, not the guide or the security guard. Also, this is not a visit for children or people who can't stand for an hour. We are guests in the nuns' (beautiful) home. I am not religious at all, but I realized that it was a privilege to be here. Keep quiet while the guide is speaking, so that he doesn't have to talk loudly, and don't sit on the furniture that is not yours. We were very pleased with our visit. I would love to go back in the winter when they have the baby Jesus collection on display.

What to say about this place? It is a convent which was endowed by several members of the Hapsburg Spanish royal family and consequently became very rich. To visit you have to join a guided tour (c. every 15 minutes, all in Spsnish when I went, and you may have yo buy tickets in advance). You can see a remarkable renaissance trump d'oeil staircase, a number of chapels, the choir containing a couple of tombs and then a number of rooms furnished with paintings and tapastries. I'll say again, the staircase is remarkable, but if you've been to the Prado, the Royal Palace, El Escorial etc, you won't have lacked for these. It is worth it? I thought so, despite my limited spanish, but if you are happy with just a taste of these things you may prefer to spend your time elsewhere.

Beautiful place with amazing art and history. The Rubens tapestries are not to be missed. I just would have liked more time here. The 1 hour tour doesn’t give you time to really absorb and examine the art and religious objects.

This monastery is so centrally located and is so unique. The art and altars are amazing. Hard to believe that until recently only the nuns were enjoying it. Definitely worth the visit.

I found out very interesting things about the Monastery and some persons of royal descent. I could admire many wonderful works of art and religious destination items.

This is an extraordinary monastery with superb tapestries & paintings but you can only go round with a guide who speaks Spanish which makes it a little bit more challenging. A wall painting in the hall that has the family in the famous Velasquez painting.

I waited in line for 40 minutes to buy tickets. Then had to come back an hour later for the tour. The tour is in Spanish and no translation is available. I asked to use Google translate but got kicked out instead. They were quite upset at me. There were rows of people waiting outside. They were asked to come back 15 minutes before each tour to buy tickets. Not true. I waited close to 45.

The grim, prisonlike walls of the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales (Convent of the Barefoot Royals) offer no hint that behind the Plateresque façade lies a sumptuous stronghold of the faith. Founded in 1559 by Juana of Austria, the widowed daughter of the Spanish king Carlos I, the convent quickly became one of Spain's richest religious houses thanks to gifts from Juana's noble friends. On the obligatory guided tour you'll see a gaudily frescoed Renaissance stairway, a number of extraordinary tapestries based on works by Rubens, and wonderful paintings from Tiziano, Sánchez Coello, Brueghel or Luini.

This place is great to visit, and should be the first place to visit on the two for one with the Encarnacion, as they don't sell the two for one at Encarnacion. It doesn't make any sense at all, but there you go. The little lady who showed us round in the group tour, was straight out of an Almodovar film. She could have been his mother. She had a rather monotonous voice, her english was ok, but everything sounded very mundane and unnecessary, and it went on for an hour. The cloisters were beautiful, four hundred years old, but humid, and we were all flagging by the time we got to the enormous Rubens tapestries, which are the main reason to go. They were absolutely fantastic, based on sketches by Rubens, took years to make and feature lots of the nobles and nuns from the time. There were also lots of little 'chapels' (spanish style) that were similarly ancient and very impressive. Classical spanish statues and paintings which wuoldn't look out of place in the Prado, real treasures. Go when it's cool though.