Madrid is one of the world’s best cities for culture for good reason: it’s absolutely stacked with museums. But from October 1, the iconic Sorolla Museum – the former home and workshop of the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla – will be closed for renovations.
The work is expected to last until 2026, but those in the city over the next week are in luck. Ahead of the closure, the Sorolla will extend its Friday and Saturday opening hours for the final two weekends of September.
On September 20, 21, 27 and 28 the museum will stay open until 10.30pm, rather than the normal closing hour of 8pm. Entrance to the museum is always free from 2pm onward on Saturdays and all day on Sundays (10am-3pm), and this will continue until the closure.
Work to build new exhibition rooms and other facilities on land adjacent to the museum remains ongoing, and, when completed, will add over 2,000 square metres to the museum. From the start of October, work will begin on the second phase, which will be focused on renovating the house and gardens to ensure they meet accessibility standards and improve the environmental monitoring systems in the exhibition rooms.
Where else can I see Sorolla’s works?
During the renovation, the museum’s collection of nearly 9,000 items will be moved to new storage facilities, but visitors and locals will be able to enjoy the Valencian artist’s work at different exhibitions in Madrid. One of these exhibitions, to be held at the Galería de Colecciones Reales under the title Sorolla, a hundred years of modernity, will bring together 77 of the painter’s works for the first time. This exhibition will feature some of his most iconic paintings alongside lesser-known works, and even some which have previously never been exhibited in Spain.
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