Visit of the Royal Academy of the Fine Arts of San Fernando

The San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts was officially inaugurated in 1752 during the reign of Fernando VI, long after the painter Antonio Meléndez suggested the idea of an Arts Academy to King Philip V in 1726. Since 1773, the Academy is housed in the palace of Goyeneche in Madrid, which was designed by José de Churriguera and adapted to a neoclassic style by Diego de Villanueva.

It is now composed of fifty-six academies in the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, or design, among others. As a major institution in Madrid, the permanent collection of the Museum of the San Fernando Royal Academy features works from Spanish, Italian and Flemish art.

It includes around 1,400 paintings (from which 13 masterpieces from Goya), 600 sculptures (Pereira,Picasso), 15,000 drawings and a large amount of decorative art objects from the 16th to the 19th century. The Academy’s impressive Collection of 17th and 18th Century Plaster Casts received a Medal of the 2005 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards.