A stately mansion in Barrio de Salamanca is home to the Lázaro Galdiano Museum and its exquisite collection of works of art. You’ll find paintings by Goya, El Greco, Zurbarán and Hieronymus Bosch, bronze figures, ceramics, glassware, textiles, medals and weapons of great value.
The Museum displays a total of four thousand, eight hundred and twenty pieces divided over the four floors of the building, following a simple layout, complemented with texts on the floors and rooms, enabling the quality and variety of the Collection to be discovered and enjoyed.
José Lázaro Galdiano was not only a clever businessman but also a renowned publisher. In the late nineteenth century, he launched a literary magazine titled La España Moderna. The foundation that bears his name takes care of and exhibits his magnificent art collection in Galdiano’s former residence, the mansion of Parque Florido. This home would host literary gatherings attended by Emilia Pardo Bazán, Miguel de Unamuno, Rubén Darío and other pre-eminent writers.
Don't miss
Some paintings stand out from the rest in the collection: Hieronymus Bosch’s St. John the Baptist in Meditation, Goya’s Witches’ Sabbath, commissioned by the Duke and Duchess of Osuna for their small palace at El Capricho Park, and Salvador Adolescente (Adolescent Saviour), a mysterious image depicting Jesus Christ that was apparently painted by one of Leonardo da Vinci’s pupils.
Hidden gems
Lázaro Galdiano was a prolific art collector as well as a bibliophile. He gathered singular documents like letters written by Lope de Vega and many medieval manuscripts. The library of the Lázaro Galdiano Foundation is open for researchers only, but a selection of its holdings can be seen in temporary exhibitions at the museum.
Laboratory of Senses
As a result of a participatory research methodology and the development of accessible technologies, the Madrid-based foundation has created this new space on the third floor of the museum that is open and accessible to people with visual and intellectual disabilities and functional for all types of visitors thanks to the Design for All approach.
This space offers 3D prints of various sculptures from the collection, a textile display of different works that are available for people with disabilities or reliefs and tactile diagrams for the blind, as well as interactive and intuitive software, STQRY, which creates content and information accessible from the auditory and visual point of view and with Easy Reading texts, aimed at intellectual disabilities, depending on the needs of each user.
Visitors can select a work in the Museum and obtain information about the author, technique and school, as well as details of each piece.
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