National Museum of Decorative Arts

Located between the Paseo del Arte (Art Walk) and El Retiro Park, this museum was founded in 1912 as the National Museum of Industrial Arts (which changed to its current name in 1930) . It was originally intended to be used a place to train artisans, craftsmen, artists and connoisseurs of the industrial arts, following in the footsteps of other similar museums, such as the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) in London, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

The Museum was first housed in an apartment on Calle Sacramento, in the heart of the area known as Madrid de los Austrias or Hapsburg Madrid. In January of 1934, the Museum moved, due to a lack of space, to a small nineteenth-century palace, at number 12 Calle Montalbán, having previously housed the city’s teaching college, which is now based there again.

The museum has more than 70,000 exhibits, some deposited in other institutions in La Granja de San Ildefonso, Seville or Madrid, among others.

Today, although most of the pieces are from Spain, there are also a considerable number of items from other countries. This allows us to look back over the centuries and explore the artistic connections between different areas, as well as the many luxury and everyday pieces that have been imported from abroad. The oriental art collection is a rather important one: it was started by King Charles III, who assembled the main part of today’s collection for the Royal Cabinet of Natural History. The decorative oriental art selection is vast and includes pieces such as “arts of fire” (ceramics, crockery, porcelain, glassware), furniture, textiles, gold and silverware, metalwork, ivory, leatherwork, nativity scenes, artwork on paper, and some painting and sculpture.

YOU'LL ENJOY

The National Museum of Decorative Arts has recreated different artistic and architectural styles from the medieval room to the contemporary dining room, as well as Gothic, Renaissance, Rococo, Empire and Modernist styles throughout…and the list goes on! Covered from head to toe in tiles, the 18th-century Valencian kitchen is one of the special highlights of the visit.