Reina Sofía floor plan: what's on each floor
The Reina Sofía is a large museum spread across two buildings. This guide tells you what's on each floor, where to find Guernica and which works you simply cannot miss — so you can make the most of your visit even if time is short.
🗺️ Map in hand: Guernica hangs in room 205.10 (floor 2). Prefer being walked straight to it with the story told? Guided tour (€32); on your own, skip-the-line ticket (€12).
In which room and on which floor is Guernica?
The Reina Sofía Museum displays Picasso's Guernica in room 205.10, on the second floor of the Sabatini building, among the historical avant-gardes. It is the heart of the collection. During the reordering for the museum's 40th anniversary, it is worth confirming the room on the daily floor plan at the entrance.
The two buildings
The museum is split across two connected venues:
- Sabatini Building (the former 18th-century hospital): houses the bulk of the permanent collection on its second and fourth floors.
- Nouvel Building (the 2005 glass extension with its red-canopy courtyard): hosts temporary exhibitions, the library, the auditorium, the shop and the café.
What's on each floor
| Sabatini · Floor 2 | The historical avant-gardes (1900–1945): Cubism, Surrealism and Picasso's Guernica — the heart of the collection — alongside Dalí, Miró and Juan Gris. |
|---|---|
| Sabatini · Floor 4 | Contemporary art (1975–present): the most recent part of the route, reorganised in 2026 for the museum's 40th anniversary. |
| Sabatini · Floors 1 & 3 | Collection spaces and exhibitions currently undergoing reorganisation (floor 3 will be dedicated to art from the 1950s–70s). |
| Nouvel Building · Floor 0/1 | Temporary exhibitions, library and Documentation Centre, auditoriums, shop and café; arranged around the red-canopy courtyard. |
The collection is being reorganised as part of the museum's 40th anniversary (2026–2028). The exact location of individual works may change: confirm using the daily floor plan available at the entrance or on the panels inside the museum.
The must-see works (and what to look for)
You do not need to see everything. Here are the key works in the collection and why each one deserves a pause:
- Guernica, Pablo Picasso (1937). The centrepiece of the museum: a nearly eight-metre-wide mural in black, white and grey denouncing the bombing of Gernika. Look at the bull, the wounded horse and the electric-light-bulb eye; the work shifts completely depending on how close you stand.
- Dalí: The Great Masturbator and Girl at the Window. The first is pure dreamlike Surrealism; the second belongs to a more figurative, serene phase. Seeing them side by side captures his evolution perfectly.
- Joan Miró: his language of signs, stars and flat colours. Notice how he reduces the world to a handful of poetic symbols.
- Juan Gris: the most elegant and ordered strand of Cubism. His still lifes explain the movement better than any label could.
- Julio González: a pioneer of welded-iron sculpture who opened the door to modern sculpture as we know it.
- Post-war art: the El Paso group, Antoni Tàpies and Antonio Saura, with their material and gestural abstraction from the 1950s–60s.
Get more out of your visit with a guide
A guided tour takes you straight to the key works and explains them in context, so you never get lost between floors.
See guided tours of the Reina Sofía →Instant confirmation.
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Tips for your route
- Start on floor 2 of the Sabatini (Guernica and the avant-gardes): it is the most visited area, so go first thing.
- Pick up the daily floor plan at the ticket desk or photograph the panels; works move around during the reorganisation.
- Allow 2–3 hours for a relaxed visit; if time is limited, prioritise Guernica + Dalí + Miró.
- The museum closes on Tuesdays; see hours & prices.
Frequently asked questions
Which floor is Guernica on?
In the Sabatini building, second floor, among the historical avant-gardes. Confirm the exact room on the daily plan.
Where are the temporary exhibitions?
Mainly in the Nouvel building (the one with the red canopy), plus some rooms in the Sabatini.
Content reviewed by the Ticket Visit team · June 2026.
