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Destination · Spain

Spain

Travel guides, landmarks and museums in Spain: what to see and do.

Guides in Spain

the monastery of el escorial seen from the friars’ garden, a huge grey granite building with the basilica dome, corner towers and slate roofs, the low-hedged garden in front and a lawn with bare trees in the foreground
Monuments & landmarks

The Monastery of El Escorial: Philip II’s palace-convent, fifty kilometres from Madrid

9 min read
the main façade of the liria palace in madrid, long and sand-coloured, with columns, balustrades and statues on the roof, behind a lawn and a large cedar
Monuments & landmarks

The Liria Palace: the Dukes of Alba’s home in Madrid, burned in 1936 and open daily since 2019

8 min read
a long room in the royal collections gallery, with a pale beamed ceiling, portraits, tapestries and landscapes on dark walls, display cases with armour and velazquez’s white horse at the far end
Museums & masterpieces

The Royal Collections Gallery: the museum of the kings of Spain, dug in below the Royal Palace

7 min read
the façade of the royal palace of madrid on the plaza de la armeria, in pale stone, with the columns, the clock and the spanish flag in the centre and the large paved square in front
Monuments & landmarks

The Royal Palace of Madrid: the largest royal palace in Western Europe, where the king does not live

8 min read
young knight in a landscape by carpaccio, a boy in armour standing in a flowering meadow, with a horseman and a castle in the background and birds in the sky
Museums & masterpieces

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum: two barons’ collection, with the painters the Prado lacks

9 min read
las meninas by velazquez, with the infanta margarita in the centre, her maids of honour around her, the painter on the left before a large canvas, a dog lying in the foreground and a bright mirror on the back wall
Museums & masterpieces

The Prado Museum: eight works to see, from Las Meninas to Goya’s Saturn

10 min read
the main courtyard of the palacio de las duenas in seville, with the fountain in the middle, palms, hedges and yellow and white galleries on two floors
Monuments & landmarks

Palacio de las Dueñas: the Seville home of the dukes of Alba, where Antonio Machado was born

8 min read
the courtyard of the palacio de buenavista, home of the museo picasso malaga, with arches on white columns on the ground floor, a balustraded gallery above and potted plants around the edge
Museums & masterpieces

The Museo Picasso Málaga: Picasso back in the city where he was born, in a palace above the Phoenician walls

8 min read
the hall of columns in the mezquita of cordoba, with rows of horseshoe arches striped red and pale disappearing into the distance
Monuments & landmarks

The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: the forest of arches and the cathedral built in the middle

9 min read
the giralda lit up in the blue evening above plaza virgen de los reyes, with the cathedral on the left and an iron street lamp in the foreground
Monuments & landmarks

Seville Cathedral and the Giralda: the minaret that became a bell tower, the golden altarpiece and Columbus’s tomb

9 min read
the patio de las doncellas in the real alcazar of seville, with the long pool between two sunken gardens, the openwork arches and the renaissance gallery above
Monuments & landmarks

The Real Alcázar of Seville: the palace that looks Arab and was built for a Christian king

9 min read
the alhambra on its hill above granada seen from the mirador de san nicolas, with red towers among the trees and mountains behind
Monuments & landmarks

The Alhambra in Granada: the Nasrid Palaces at the time on your ticket, the Generalife and the Palace of Charles V

9 min read
the monastery of Montserrat beneath the jagged rocks of the mountain, with the road on a viaduct and woods all around
Monuments & landmarks

Montserrat from Barcelona: the mountain, La Moreneta and a thousand years of monastery

10 min read
the Gothic gallery in the courtyard of Palau Aguilar, home of the Museu Picasso, with pointed arches on slender columns and an openwork stone parapet
Museums & masterpieces

Museu Picasso in Barcelona: the young Picasso, in five Gothic palaces on Carrer Montcada

9 min read
the white roof terraces of the Fundació Joan Miró with large curved concrete skylights and Barcelona in the background
Museums & masterpieces

Fundació Joan Miró: the white museum Miró wanted to be “a living place”, opened in Franco’s last year

8 min read
the Plaza Mayor of the Poble Espanyol with the stone town hall of Valderrobres, its arcades and street lamps, and an iron railing in the foreground
Monuments & landmarks

Poble Espanyol: the village of the 1929 Exhibition that was meant to be demolished

8 min read
the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion with its flat white roof, travertine walls, a slender steel pillar and a stone bench
Monuments & landmarks

Mies van der Rohe Pavilion: the 1929 building taken down after the Exhibition and rebuilt in 1986

7 min read
the stone façade of Palau Güell seen from below, with its two parabolic arched gateways, the coat of arms with the phoenix between them and the gallery above
Monuments & landmarks

Palau Güell: Gaudí’s palace with stables under the street and a starry sky over the hall

9 min read
the façade of Casa Vicens with its bands of green and white tiles, red brick and turrets, among the palms of the garden
Monuments & landmarks

Casa Vicens, Gaudí’s first house: yellow flowers, a dwarf palm and a Moorish smoking room

9 min read
the hall of the Palau de la Música Catalana seen from the stalls, with the organ, the stained-glass walls and the golden skylight in the ceiling
Monuments & landmarks

Palau de la Música Catalana: the glass concert hall a choir built for itself

9 min read
the Administration pavilion of Sant Pau lit up in the evening, with the clock tower and the entrance avenue
Monuments & landmarks

Sant Pau: the hospital Domènech i Montaner built like a city

10 min read
the undulating stone façade of La Pedrera lit up in the evening, with its wrought-iron balconies and the trees in front
Monuments & landmarks

La Pedrera: Gaudí’s house without a main staircase or load-bearing walls

11 min read
the façade of Casa Batlló covered in coloured fragments, with its white mask-shaped balconies and the scaly roof
Monuments & landmarks

Casa Batlló: Gaudí was meant to demolish it, and remade it from the inside instead

10 min read
the mosaic bench on the square of Park Güell, with the chequered tower of the entrance pavilion and Barcelona stretching down to the sea
Monuments & landmarks

Park Güell: the failed luxury estate that became Gaudí’s park

11 min read
the octagonal bell tower of the Seu Vella of Lleida seen from the cloister, between two columns and above the traceried arcades
Monuments & landmarks

The Seu Vella of Lleida: a cathedral that served as a barracks for 241 years

11 min read
Pere Johan’s alabaster high altarpiece in Tarragona Cathedral, with its gilded pinnacles and Saint Thecla at the centre
Monuments & landmarks

Tarragona Cathedral: this is where the altarpiece that ends in Zaragoza begins

12 min read
the vault of the Sagrada Família seen from below, with the columns branching out and the golden skylights over the crossing
Monuments & landmarks

The Sagrada Família is not a church to look at: it is a machine for light

15 min read
Zaragoza seen from the Torre Mirador of El Pilar, with the Ebro, the bridges and the basilica’s glazed tiled domes
Monuments & landmarks

The two cathedrals of Zaragoza: why one city has a pair of them

14 min read
the Aljafería Palace in Zaragoza seen at three quarters, with its crenellated cylindrical towers and the Torre del Trovador behind
Monuments & landmarks

The Aljafería Palace in Zaragoza: the missing link between Córdoba and the Alhambra

13 min read
the colourful houses overlooking the river Onyar in Girona, mirrored in the water at sunset
Travel guides

Girona: what to see in one day, from the cathedral to the Call

12 min read
The statues of the Guanche kings in front of the basilica of Candelaria in Tenerife
Travel guides

Tenerife: what to see and do in a week between nature, art and volcanoes (updated 2026)

10 min read
Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid
Museums & masterpieces

Reina Sofia Museum: 9 works to discover contemporary art in Madrid (updated 2026)

20 min read
The Crystal Palace in El Retiro Park, Madrid
Monuments & landmarks

El Retiro Park in Madrid: the green lung between the Crystal Palace and history (updated 2026)

7 min read