Spain: Museums in Madrid reopen after two months of confinement

Text by: François Musseau Follow

While Spain is slowly being altered, and Madrid is doing it more slowly than other regions, many of the great museums are reopening. Like the Prado, the largest and most prestigious art gallery in the country, which began to welcome the public this Saturday, June 6.

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From our correspondent in Madrid,

This weekend, visits are exceptionally free to the Prado Museum in Madrid, which reopened from Saturday June 6. To accommodate visitors in the midst of the confusion caused by the Covid-19 pandemic , everything has been refurbished, especially along the main gallery. In total, out of the 1,714 paintings exhibited in the permanent collection, only 250 are available to visitors.

It is with great enthusiasm that, along the paseo del Prado, at the entrance to the museum, dozens of people gather to finally be able to enter this emblematic museum. On the forecourt, they are not so numerous, because the only possibility to access it is to have obtained your ticket on the internet. The number of places has been limited to a third, or only 1,800 people instead of 5,400. Visitors approach to inquire, visibly disappointed at not being able to enter.

“  I feel a great lack of culture, after so many days of confinement. And I need to partially approach the paintings in what is for me one of the best museums in the world,  ”says Pilar, a university professor who could not get an entry and who will certainly come back another day.

" An opportunity to contemplate the paintings in a different way "

The happy elected officials who were able to secure a place, wriggle with impatience in the queue. “  It is an opportunity to contemplate the paintings in a different way. There are fewer people, they have changed the route inside, and I in any case find it interesting,  "explains Paola, a law student who says she is a longtime lover of the Prado Museum.

If she dreams of seeing paintings by Goya, Velazquez or El Greco, unfortunately for her, it will be impossible for her to admire the Jardin des Délices, by Jérôme Bosch, currently under restoration. Around Paola, the reactions are unanimous: many people say that during the hard weeks of confinement , culture is what they missed most.

► To read: The response, country by country: Coronavirus: in Spain, of a late reaction to one of the strictest confinements

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