Museo del Prado is Spain’s most famous art museum and focuses on mainly 16th and 17th-century art. Includes works by the Spanish masters including Velázquez, Goya, and El Greco, as well as Titian, Bosch, Rubens, and other European artists.
www.museodelprado.es

Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is Madrid’s modern Spanish art museum, home to Picasso’s “Guernica.” Dalí, Miró, Gris, and other 20th-century artists fill the long halls of this former hospital.
www.museoreinasofia.es

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is the third part of Madrid’s “golden triangle,” filling in the gaps with mostly European art from the 13th to the 20th century, including French Impressionism, German Expressionism, and Russian Avant-Garde.
www.museothyssen.org

Palacio Real is Spain’s beautiful royal palace, built on the site of an early Moorish fortification. The palace is used occasionally for royal functions, but many of its lavishly decorated rooms are open to tourists, as are its spectacular gardens to the north and west.
www.patrimonionacional.es/preal/preal.htm

El Escorial is Felipe II’s enormous 16th-century complex in the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama northwest of Madrid, complete with a royal palace, monastery, library, seminary, and basilica.
www.patrimonionacional.es/escorial/escorial.htm

Parque del Retiro is the city’s most elegant park, on the grounds of what used to be a royal retreat. It houses several exhibition spaces and is near the emblematic Puerta de Alcalá, one of the city’s former “gates.”

Plaza Mayor is an arcaded square that was the center of life in Madrid for years and is still an enjoyable place to gather. In past life it was the scene of executions during the Inquisition and an open-air market.

Cibeles is the plaza that sits at the north end of the Paseo del Prado with a fountain depicting the goddess Cybele and her lion-drawn chariot. The plaza is flanked by Correos, the impressive main post office building, and other palaces.

El Rastro is Madrid’s weekly flea market, where you can find everything from locks and keys to antique furniture and random kitchen utensils. The market winds along the streets between two of Madrid’s oldest neighborhoods, La Latina and Lavapiés.

Templo de Debod is an Egyptian temple dating from the 2nd century B.C. that the Egyptian government gave to Spain for its help in preserving monuments during the construction of the Aswan Dam in the 1960s.