Prado Museum opens engineering route on 26 October

Prado Museum (Museo del Prado) in Madrid opens Engineering at the Prado: A Bridge between Art and Technology on 26 October 2026. The new route links twenty-nine works from the collection with roads, bridges, ports, mills and fortifications.

Engineering route starts at Prado Museum on 26 October

The route runs from 26 October 2026 to 21 February 2027 in the Villanueva Building. It was developed by the museum with Fundación Fhecor, an organisation dedicated to studying and promoting the history of engineering.

The selection examines infrastructure in paintings as a central subject, a landscape feature, a historical record or a symbol of progress. The official route includes works by Francisco de Goya, El Greco, Andrea Mantegna, Antonio Joli and Mariano Ramon Sanchez, among other artists.

Visitors will encounter bridges, roads, ports, mills, hydraulic works, hot-air balloons, fortified enclosures and cathedrals. The route therefore offers a way to read familiar paintings through structures that may sit in the background rather than dominate the composition. The official route description identifies the twenty-nine works and the Villanueva Building.

Villanueva Building connects the route with Prado history

The route is presented inside the building designed by Juan de Villanueva in 1785. The structure was initially intended to house a Natural History Cabinet commissioned by King Charles III.

Its later role changed under Ferdinand VII and Maria Isabel of Braganza. The Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures opened to the public in November 1819, with a first catalogue containing 311 paintings. The building later underwent expansions as the collection and visitor numbers grew.

That history gives the new route a specific setting. Its subject is infrastructure, while its venue is itself the result of a major architectural project that has been adapted over two centuries. The museum history records the 1785 design and the 1819 opening.

Paintings turn bridges and ports into historical evidence

Several works show how paintings can preserve details about places that have changed. Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo’s View of Zaragoza records a stone bridge and its relationship with the city and riverside landscape.

Two paintings by Antonio Joli depict the port of Naples from different viewpoints. Together, they allow changes in port structures to be considered alongside the artistic qualities of the scenes. Other works place engineering in less obvious roles, including Goya’s The San Isidro Meadow and Mantegna’s Death of the Virgin.

The route also includes Mariano Ramon Sanchez’s Bridge at Molins de Rey and View of the Bridge at Martorell. In these works, the bridge is more clearly visible as an object of design, while in other paintings infrastructure helps organise pictorial space or directs the viewer’s gaze.

Visiting Prado Museum: what travellers from Western Europe should know

• Engineering at the Prado: A Bridge between Art and Technology runs from 26 October 2026 to 21 February 2027 in the Villanueva Building.
• The route is an exhibition itinerary through twenty-nine works, so visitors will find paintings rather than a separate display of engineering equipment.
• The museum is at Paseo del Prado s/n in Madrid, Spain, in the city’s central Prado area.
• Spanish is the official language and the national currency is the euro.

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Frequently asked questions about Prado Museum

When does Engineering at the Prado take place at Prado Museum?

The route runs from 26 October 2026 to 21 February 2027 in the Villanueva Building.

What is Engineering at the Prado?

It is a route through twenty-nine collection works that feature bridges, roads, ports, mills and other infrastructure.

Where is Prado Museum and how do you get there?

The museum is at Paseo del Prado s/n in Madrid, Spain, in the central Prado area.