Almost all Spanish museums saw their number of visits increase in 2025 compared to the previous year. In some cases, they achieved the best numbers in their history. This is the case of National heritagethat he received 7,450,828 visitors in 2025, which means … a historic record, an improvement of 3.8% compared to 2024 (7,169,027). The Royal Palace of Madrid stands out, with 1,769,167 visits, or 11.6% more than in 2024; the Gallery of Royal Collections with 741,589 visitors and the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial with 450,077 visits.
In CaixaForum centersfor its part, there have been ups and downs compared to 2024. Thus, that of Barcelona obtained a total of 585,575 visitors in 2025 (15.09% more than the previous year), while that of Madrid It remained at 852,345, or 10.06% lower than in 2024. They attribute this to the “boom” of dinosaur exhibitions in the second half of the year. “Les Mondes d’Alice” and “Chez Matisse” are the most visited exhibitions at the capital’s headquarters. CosmoCaixa Barcelona It was visited by 1,190,965 people.
The network of State Museums managed directly by the Ministry of Culture, through the General Directorate of Heritage and Fine Arts, received a visit in 2025 from 2,878,631 peoplea figure lower than the three million visitors in 2024. Of the 16 national museums, the National Archaeological Museumwhich reached its historic record by recording 864,201 visitors37.76% more than the previous year.
Madrid
The Pradowhich opened its doors in 2025 for 362 days, closed the year with 3,513,402 visitors. The daily average was 9,705 visitors, with the peak day being Monday May 3 (17,484). This is the first time that it has exceeded the figure of 3.5 million visitors and sets a record for the third consecutive year: 3,457,057 in 2024 and 3,337,550 in 2023. 54.7% of the public entered by paying their entrance fee and 45.28% for free. The art gallery’s audience profile is still young (almost 50% are between 14 and 34 years old) and is predominantly female. More than 60% of the visitors it received in 2025 came from abroad (65.9%): the United States (14%), Mexico (10%), Italy (5%) and Argentina (4%).
Queen Sofia received last year 1,601,732 visitors compared to 1,537,105 in 2024, which represents an increase of 4.2%. The two headquarters of the Retiro Park museums (the Cristal and Velázquez palaces) remained closed all year for rehabilitation work. 62% of visitors to the main headquarters had free access. Ticket collection reached 7,855,677 euros, 3.4% more than the previous year.
After two consecutive years of decline, the Thyssen museum manages to increase the number of visits and once again crosses the border of one million visitors: more precisely, 1,003,455which represents an increase of 5.4% compared to 2024 (951,821), although it is still lower than 2023 (1,012,660). 51.2% were of national origin (38.5% from Madrid and 12.7% from the rest of Spain) and 48.8% were international. The most visited exhibition was “Picasso and Klee in the Heinz Berggruen Collection”, with 116,183 visitors, followed by “Proust and the Arts” (112,890).
Barcelona
In Barcelona, the general trend is towards consolidation or slight audience growth. Visitors responded to the call of the city’s main cultural centers. He Picasso Museum received 1,021,500 visitorsdown slightly compared to the 1.13 million received in 2024. The flagship exhibition of the year was that dedicated to Claude Picasso, which received 254,855 people. In the absence of official figures, since National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) They assure that in 2025, they will reach almost 900,000 visitors. In 2024, this number represented a strong growth to reach 860,000, an increase of 44 percent compared to 2023.
Inside Barcelona Contemporary Culture Center (CCCB) They remain stable with 470,000 visitors, a figure very similar to that of 2024. In this case, the flagship exhibition was “Chris Ware”. To draw is to think. As for the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (Macba)which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, the figures should be similar to those of 2024, when they reached 261,400 visits.
Malaga
He Picasso Museum in Malaga closed 2025 with 792,366 visitorspractically the same figure as in 2024 (792,353). For his part, the Carmen Thyssen Museum Málaga It continues to maintain record numbers since 2023 and once again exceeds 200,000 visitors in one year. Specifically, 202,715.
Bilbao
“2025 was a very positive year for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao thanks to the support obtained from the public, which is reflected in 1,305,003 visitors3,660 more than in 2024. The months of May, June and July were the best in history, placing the summer as the second best in the history of the museum, after 2023; “A very positive assessment which confirms the good start of the new stage of the museum under the direction of the new general director, Miren Arzalluz.” This is stated in a press release from the museum. 69% of the audience was foreign: France (15%), Germany (9%), Great Britain (9%), United States (6%) and Italy (5%). The most visited exhibition was ‘in situ: Refik Anadol’which received 891,460 visitors.
Cáceres
With a total of 215 421 visits last year, the Helga de Alvear Museum It continues to strengthen: in 2024 it welcomed 199,782 people, which represents an increase of 15,639 people. Thus ends a year marked by farewells to its founder, Helga de Alvear, who died in February.
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