Simon Hunter
FROM SATURDAY, Spain’s world-famous Prado Museum will be opening its doors on a Saturday evening, as part of a new project called ‘The Prado at Night’.
The public will be able to visit a selection of different galleries inside the trove of artworks, which is located in central Madrid, on the first Saturday of each month from 8.30 to 11.30pm.
The aim is to ‘connect more closely with all sectors of the public’, according to the museum. The project will also include musical events, and is being sponsored by technology company Samsung.
A special program will be broadcast live from the museum on Spanish radio station Radio 3 this Saturday, as part of a night that will celebrate the Prado.
The opening night of the new project, on March 4, will focus on the Central Gallery. This area is home to works such as Christ washing the Disciples’ Feet by Tintoretto, Charles V at Mühlberg by Titian and The Three Graces by Rubens.
It is also home to Las Meninas, by Velazquez, perhaps the most emblematic of all the works in the Prado.
Entry will be free of charge from 8.30pm onward, until all of the available spaces are full. Access will end at 11pm.
The museum is the most-visited in Madrid, and racked up more than 2.4 million patrons in 2022.
It was chosen in the summer of 2022 by the Spanish government to host a NATO meeting, a move considered to be a canny display of soft power by the administration of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez thanks to the images widely shared afterwards of world leaders in the museum.
‘The Prado at Night’ will run until the month of August on the following dates: March 4; April 1; May 6; June 3; July 1; and August 5.
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