Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga on 25 October 1881 and left it as a child, in 1891, when his family moved to A Coruña. The museum Málaga has dedicated to him opened on 27 October 2003, half a century after a first attempt came to nothing, in the Palacio de Buenavista, a sixteenth-century palace in the historic centre. Picasso’s works are still protected by copyright: that is why the photographs on this page show the palace and not the paintings.

If you can choose your day, choose Sunday: in the last two hours before closing, entry is free for everyone. At other times the ticket costs 13 euros, and includes the audio guide on your phone.

Why was the Picasso museum in Málaga not founded back in 1953?

A museum fifty years in the waiting

In 1953 Juan Temboury, the provincial delegate for Fine Arts in Málaga, wrote to Picasso asking him to donate two works in each technique. It would have been the first museum in the world devoted to him alone. It did not happen because the authorities of the time, in Franco’s Spain, turned the donation down.

the tower of the palacio de buenavista rising above calle san agustin in malaga, with street lamps and people sitting at tables in the street

The thread was picked up by Christine Ruiz-Picasso, the widow of the artist’s eldest son, Paul. After two exhibitions in Málaga, in 1992 and 1994, in 1996 she relaunched the 1953 project. She gave the museum 133 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and ceramics; the artist’s grandson, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, added twenty-two more. The opening, in 2003, took place in the presence of the King and Queen of Spain.

The Palacio de Buenavista

Why an old palace, and not a new building?

Because Picasso wanted an “old and secular” building for his museum. The Palacio de Buenavista was both, and it also stood in the historic centre and was a typically Andalusian palace.

the stone doorway of the palacio de buenavista, with an iron balcony above the door

It was built in the sixteenth century by Diego de Cazalla, who had taken part in the Christian conquest of Málaga in 1487, on the remains of a Nasrid palace: of that, the tower on the east side of the courtyard survives. Its style mixes the Renaissance and the Mudéjar tradition.

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

The palace has had many lives. It was a family home until the late nineteenth century, then a tenement, a school, a furniture factory, a carpentry workshop and a hospital. In 1939 it was declared a national monument, and from 1961 to 1997 it housed the Provincial Museum of Fine Arts. For the Picasso museum the palace was not enough: fifteen neighbouring houses were bought, and the architect Richard Gluckman turned them into a small quarter of white, cubic buildings, which won an American Institute of Architects award in 2006. The collection stays in the old palace.

Under the museum, Phoenician Málaga

What lies beneath the museum floor?

Nearly three thousand years of history. Málaga is one of the oldest cities in the West: the Phoenicians founded it around the eighth century BC, under the name Malaka, and beneath the Palacio de Buenavista you can visit an archaeological site.

an old brick floor beneath the palacio de buenavista, with the round mouths of six jars set into it

Among the remains are part of a Phoenician house from the late seventh century BC, a stretch of the Phoenician walls from the early sixth, and a tower of the second circuit of walls, from the late sixth century. Then come the tanks of a Roman fish-salting factory, active between the third and fifth centuries AD, which also produced garum, the fish sauce exported to Rome. And there is the sixteenth-century floor of the palace cellar, with jars set into it to store provisions.

ancient stone walls beneath the palacio de buenavista, lit by a spotlight behind a railing

The collection, on show until 2028

Until 19 March 2028 the collection is shown in a display called Pablo Picasso: estructuras de la invención, with 144 works chosen by the curator Michael FitzGerald. The idea is not to divide Picasso into periods (the Blue Period, the Rose Period, Cubism), but to put works from different decades in the same room, so that you see the threads that tie them together.

You understand it from the first room, which jumps from the late 1890s to 1970. The works range from 1895 to 1972, across paintings, sculptures, ceramics, drawings and prints, and many come from the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, which lends them to the museum. The ticket also covers the temporary exhibitions.

Picasso’s Málaga

The museum’s own street, Calle San Agustín, also remembers Picasso, with a tile plaque from 2004: it says that, according to tradition, this is where the nursery school he went to as a child once stood.

a white and blue tile plaque on calle san agustin in malaga, recalling the nursery school picasso attended as a child

On Plaza de la Merced stands the house where Picasso was born, now another museum, that of the Fundación Picasso Museo Casa Natal.

the large yellow and white building on plaza de la merced in malaga, where picasso’s birthplace is, with outdoor tables in front

Practical information

Details checked on 29 October 2026 on the official website, museopicassomalaga.org. Prices and opening hours change: check again before you leave.

TicketsThe single ticket costs 13 euros and includes the audio guide, which opens on your phone without downloading anything. The reduced ticket costs 11 euros and is for over-65s, holders of the European Youth Card and students under 26. On Tiqets you will find the Museo Picasso Málaga ticket with audio guide, at the same price as the official one, with the temporary exhibitions included.
Opening hoursThe museum is open every day: from November to February from 10:00 to 18:00, from March to June and from September to October from 10:00 to 19:00, in July and August from 10:00 to 20:00. You can go in until 30 minutes before closing. On 24 and 31 December and 5 January it opens from 10:00 to 15:00.
ClosuresIt is closed on 25 December and on 1 and 6 January.
Free admissionEvery Sunday, in the last two hours of opening, entry is free for everyone, and the ticket office closes half an hour earlier; it is also free on 28 February, 18 May, 27 September and 27 October. Under-17s, people with disabilities and their companion, jobseekers registered with the Spanish public employment service, students of the University of Málaga, teachers, ICOM members and journalists always go in free.
Getting thereThe address is Calle San Agustín 8, in the historic centre, near the cathedral, the Alcazaba and the Roman theatre. The nearest bus stops are Paseo del Parque-Ayuntamiento and Plaza de la Merced.
BookThe Museo Picasso MálagaBook the Museo Picasso MálagaAffiliate links

Another Picasso museum in Spain is the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, devoted to his formative years. And to see a Nasrid palace in full, like the one the Buenavista was built on, there is the Alhambra in Granada.

Photographs from Wikimedia Commons: the courtyard, by Emilio Luque, CC BY-SA 4.0; the tower on Calle San Agustín, by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0; the doorway, by Zarateman, CC0; the two views of the excavations, by Derbrauni, CC BY 4.0; the plaque, by Daniel Capilla, CC BY-SA 4.0; the birthplace, by Palickap, CC BY-SA 4.0.