Sorolla House Museum

The Sorolla Museum is, without a doubt, one of Madrid’s best museums and one of my personal favorites. For starters, the building itself is gorgeous. It’s the home where the Spanish artist Sorolla lived and the conservation is such that, upon entering, you are immediately transported back in time. The rooms and studio are an amazing mix of furniture from the era and works by the painter himself. The chance to see the gardens alone (which are free) is worth the visit. As you can see in the photos, the gardens recall the Moorish gardens of the Alhambra and there are even benches and tables where you can sit in the shade and enjoy the splendor of the gardens.

This is definitely one of the best "secondary" museums in Madrid and is a personal favorite of mine. First of all, the museum gardens are an oasis of peace, flowers, and gurgling fountains in the center of hectic Madrid. The enclosed garden has benches covered in gorgeous blue and white tiles, and peaceful Moorish-style fountains like those found at the Alhambra. It's a wonderful place to sit and relax and is free to visit even if you don't enter the museum.

Sorolla the painter is criminally underrated outside of Spain but was a true talent. Many of his works depict simply 19th-century life on the coast of Valencia and his way of painting the combination of water and sunlight is really impressive.

If there’s anywhere you can go in Madrid to feel transported to another world, it’s definitely the Sorolla Museum, home of the artist and his family. The building was conceived to serve as a studio as well and is designed to capture the maximum amount of natural light, something which is reflected in the artist’s work.
There is a great selection of the painter’s work, from his famous Valencian beach scenes to small portraits capturing the various regional customs in Spain that were commissioned by the Hispanic Society of America (very small but very interesting). There’s also a great collection of sculpture, ceramics, photography, modern and antique furniture, as well as a number of tapestries.

It brings me a lot of memories