★★★★★ 5.0
Discover
Naval Museum
This building looks impossibly modern for a place holding 230 years of Spain's maritime history—its glass and wood facade still feels out of place among the marble of Paseo del Prado, even after the 2020 renovation. You're standing two blocks north of the Prado Museum at the Naval Museum, founded in 1792 by Navy Secretary Antonio de Valdés y Fernández Bazán to educate Spain's maritime workforce. Climb the wooden staircase inside—deliberately designed to evoke the sailing ships of Spain's Golden Age—and discover Juan de la Cosa's 1500 map, the first cartographic representation of the Americas ever created. That map sailed with Columbus. Beyond it lie treasures from the San Diego, a Manila galleon that sank off the Philippines in 1600, recovered centuries later. Over 100 ship models spanning the 16th century to today showcase naval innovations that changed global maritime history. After closing two years for renovation, the museum reopened in 2020 with modern galleries displaying 12,000 artifacts right alongside the Spanish Navy headquarters. Every model, every painting, every compass tells you why Spain once ruled the seas.
Did You Know?
- : The Museo Naval in Madrid was founded in 1792 by Navy Secretary Antonio de Valdés and Fernández Bazán to educate Spain’s maritime workforce, making it one of the oldest naval museums in the world and a pioneer in using museum collections for public education.
- The museum houses the world’s first known map of the Americas, the famous Juan de la Cosa map from 1500, which is a priceless artifact showing early European understanding of the New World and is displayed alongside other masterpieces of Spanish cartography.
- A special exhibit features over 1,000 gold coins recovered from the wreck of the Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, whose ownership was famously decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012, highlighting the museum’s role in protecting underwater heritage and the drama of international treasure disputes.