National Museum of Decorative Arts

Located between the Paseo del Arte and El Retiro Park, this museum, created in 1912 as the National Museum of Industrial Arts (receiving its current name in 1930), is a place for the learning of artisans, manufacturers, artists, and connoisseurs of industrial arts, following a similar concept to that which had inspired the establishment of other museums of the same type, 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 initially housed in an apartment on Sacramento Street, in the heart of Habsburg Madrid.

In January 1934, due to lack of space, the Museum moved to a small 19th-century mansion at number 12 Montalbán Street, which until that year had housed the Higher Teacher Training School and is now its current location. The museum has over 70,000 items in its collection, some of which are on loan to other institutions such as La Granja de San Ildefonso, Seville, and Madrid. Currently, although most of its pieces are Spanish, there is a significant collection of foreign origin, which seeks to reflect artistic exchanges and the importation of everyday and luxury objects throughout the centuries. The collection of Oriental art is particularly important, the core of which comes from the collection amassed by Charles III for the Cabinet of Natural History. Western decorative arts are the most abundant, and include fire arts (ceramics, earthenware, porcelain, glass), furniture, textiles, gold and silver work, ivory, cordovan and embossed leather, nativity scenes, works on paper, and some painting and sculpture. You'll be surprised! The National Museum of Decorative Arts recreates different environments, from the medieval drawing room to the contemporary dining room, including Gothic, Renaissance, Rococo, Empire, Modernist styles, and many more. Among the most surprising spaces is an 18th-century Valencian kitchen, completely covered in tiles.