Free admission and extended opening times at museums for National Day of Spain

Ministerio de Cultura y DeporteThe Prado National Museum, National Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Centre will join this initiative and offer free admission.

In turn, the National Library of Spain will offer free admission to the General Reading Room between 10:00 and 14:00, which is usually reserved for library users and researchers. In the Antechamber, visitors will have the chance to see the Book of Hours of Charles V of Spain, one of the most important illuminated manuscripts at the library. Before being restored, it has been dismantled and 32 of its pages are on display for the first time.

The State museums managed by the ministerial department are:

• National Archaeological Museum, in Madrid
• Fashion Museum, in Madrid
• National Museum of Decorative Arts, in Madrid
• Sorolla Museum, in Madrid
• National Museum of Anthropology, in Madrid
• Cerralbo Museum, in Madrid
• Museum of Romanticism, in Madrid
• Museum of the Americas, in Madrid
• National Museum of Roman Art, in Mérida
• Altamira Museum, in Santillana del Mar (Cantabria)
• National Museum of Underwater Archaeology (ARQUA), in Cartagena (Murcia)
• El Greco Museum, in Toledo
• Sephardic Museum, in Toledo
• González Martí National Museum of Ceramics and Decorative Arts, in Valencia
• National Museum of Sculpture, in Valladolid
• Casa de Cervantes Museum, in Valladolid.

Eight of these museums will also temporarily extend their opening times this year, six of them until 20:00 (National Archaeological Museum, Museum of the Americas, National Museum of Anthropology, National Museum of Underwater Archaeology, National Museum of Ceramics and Sorolla Museum) and two of them until 18:00 (Museum of Romanticism and Altamira Museum).

Further details can be found at this link to the website of the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport.

Musical activities and children's workshops

Ministerio de Cultura y DeporteThree museums have also planned special activities to celebrate the National Day of Spain.

The Museum of the Americas will offer micro guitar recitals by Luis Alejandro García in its halls between 11:30 and 13:30 under the title of "Lazos sobre el Atlántico".

At the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology in Cartagena, the Cartagena Polyphonic Choir will perform a recital of Habaneras y Canciones del Mar at 12:00, which will be open to the public until capacity inside the museum is reached.

The prehistoric workshop entitled "Cazadores de ciervos" will show visitors to the Altamira Museum how people used to hunt in the late Palaeolithic period and the resources used to make hunting instruments like the assegai and spearheads.

Non official translation