Madrid unveiled a highly anticipated gallery Thursday, which has been a long-awaited project worth millions of dollars. This gallery brings together an extensive collection of masterpieces from the royal collection, showcasing renowned works by artists such as Caravaggio, Velazquez, and Goya, all housed in one location.
The new Royal Collections Gallery, next to the palace and close to Almudena Cathedral, sits across town from the established institutions of the capital's "Triangle of Art" – the Prado, the Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza museums.
The 170 million euro ($186 million) building shows artworks collected by the Spanish Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties over five centuries, including the model Bernini used for his "Fontana dei quattro fiumi" in Rome's Piazza Navona.
Until now, the over 650 pieces – including tapestries, sculptures, armor, and jewels – were kept in palaces and monasteries across the country.
A third of the exhibits – themselves just a fraction of the total collection – will continue to move between those institutions, officials said.
The eight-floor building made of white concrete, granite, oak wood, and cast aluminum also features a chunk of Madrid's 9th-century wall built under the city's then-Muslim rulers.
"The museum is born with the vocation of being a cultural and tourist key point in Madrid, Spain and Europe," Ana de la Cueva, head of National Heritage, the state-owned organization that manages the royal collection, told reporters.
She said officials hoped the museum would persuade tourists to extend their stay in the city by at least one day, boosting revenues.
