We know the Reina Sofia as an extraordinary museum that houses jewels of contemporary art. Its origin, however, was very different.

Felipe II decided to bring together the medical centers and hospices spread throughout Madrid in a single building in 1556. Three years later, under the reign of Philip III, the first shelter was installed on Santa Isabel Street. In the XVIII century, Carlos III decided on a new foundation. The current building is the work of the architects José de Hermosilla y Francisco Sabatini, a large part of the work being due to the latter, but which does not represent anything more than a third of the original project.

Other facilities were added to the main construction, such as the Santa Catalina hospital or the Pasión hospital, being called the General Hospital complex.

It continued to undergo renovations and variations, until, in 1965, the hospital was closed. After a stage, in which it was even considered demolition, the building survived and in 1977, it was declared a Historical-Artistic Monument.

In 1980 the restoration of the building began, Antonio Fernandez Alba; In 1986 the Reina Sofía Art Center opened. At the end of 1988, José Luis Íñiguez de Onzoño y Antonio Vazquez de Castro They would carry out the finishing touches. Very notable is the incorporation of the three glass and steel elevator towers, designed with the collaboration of the architect Ian Ritchie.

The Museum was founded with headquarters in the San Carlos Hospital in Madrid and with funds from the Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art. In 1992, the Permanent Collection of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, until then, had only hosted temporary exhibitions.

The Museum continues to develop and demanded more space. In 2001 the architect Jean Nouvel, carried out in a new building. It opened in 2005. Its project transformed the urban environment and reconfigured the neighborhood. Currently, the Museum maintains two exhibition spaces in the Parque de Retirement, in the Crystal Palace and in the Velázquez Palace.

The Museum's collection is understood to be that of the Museo del Prado, and covers the period from the 19th century to the present. It shows the first contacts of Spanish modernity with Europe: Hermenegildo Anglada-Camarasa, Ignacio Zuloaga o Francisco rubio, the Cubist and Surrealist movements: Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Juan Gris, María Blanchard…And the Museum's best-known work, Guernica by Pablo Picasso, represents the bombing of the Condor Legion planes over Guernica in 1937. A striking work.

A abrazo.