Madrid: A Day in "El Museo del Prado" and in "Barrio de Letras"

As students in another country, one of the first tasks handed to us by our culture class was to explore museums by ourselves. Of course the first museum we chose is "El Museo del Prado", known for its variety collections of Velasquez, Goya and El Greco. These collections however were not the only impressive assortments of art that the Prado had. Two of my absolute favorite pieces of art had to be a roman sculpture of Venus and Mars in a tender embrace and a painting titled "Woman from Madrid"  by Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta, with the medium being oil on canvas. Unfortunately since "El Prado" has a strict 'no photo' policy, I could not capture their beauty to post here, but luckily they are a google search away! The building does not look it, but it is actually ten times bigger when you step in than when you are outside looking in. It genuinely surprised me how many rooms and floors there were, it felt like the art never stopped. Another room that I was completely fascinated by was the "dark paintings" room that had famous painting "Saturn Devouring His Son"by Francisco Goya. This piece has become well known on the internet, and it was amazing being able to see it  in real life. 

Since we were already in "El Prado" we decided that after a quick tapas lunch, we would head out and explore the "Barrio de Letras" or the neighborhood of letters. This section of the city is well known because of the Museum of Lope De Vega and the house where Cervantes lived and died. It was fascinating seeing these places firsthand and acknowledge that these people were once living and not just a subject to study in spanish class. We could not enter either of these because it was already a bit too late, but we did get to take a few pictures before heading back to the residence. 

The house were Cervantes lived and died.

The Museum of Lope de Vega

Inscription on the street in front of the Museum of Lope de Vega stating: "This is the house where Lope Félix de Vega y Carpio, called "The Phoenix of the Geniuses", whomst literature transcended the limits of the credible and cultivated all the genres of literature lived and died on August 26, 1635."  

Inscription found in front of Cervantes house that quotes Don Quixote and states: "In this street, in the number 2, was where he lived and died on April 23, 1616, Miguel de Cervantes. The original building, with entrance by number twenty of Leon Street was demolished in 1833."


Hopefully, with bit more time on my hands, I will get to come back to both the Museum of El Prado and the Barrio de Letras to be able to experience both of these more clearly and calmly. I believe that both of these are very important places to visit in a trip to Madrid.