Spain, with its myriad of impacts and impressive history, is a country with a varied gamut of sights and sounds to offer its 45 million travelers who go to every year. An area where this can be seen in particular remains in its museums and galleries, a rich history of art and culture has left Spain a huge legacy in this department with names such as Dali, Picasso and Miro leading the list:

Guggenheim, Bilbao:
Now among the most easily acknowledged buildings in Europe, the Guggenheim in Bilbao is a work of art itself. Opened in 1997 and created by American architect Frank O. Gehry, the museum has been a lynchpin for the city’s redevelopment programme and in lots of ways the museum symbolises the brand-new, contemporary Bilbao.

Standing right in the city centre alongside the river the museum provides 11,000 sqm of exhibition space over 3 galleries. The museum has a body of permanent work always on display screen in addition to big exhibits which run for months at a time.

Presently on View is the “Aztec Empire” consisting of a substantial body of work from the pre-columbian civilization. Previous exhibits have encompassed an eclectic mix of art with work from the similarity Matisse, Michelangelo, Reubens and Warhol having beautified its corridors.

Dali Theatre-Museum, Figueres
Located in Figueres, the Dali Theatre-Museum is the broadest collection of his work in the world tracing his very first creative forays, the surrealist period and even including some of the last works painted before his death. Figueres also occurs to be Dali’s home town and the choice to develop the museum from the ruins of the town’s Spanish civil war-damaged theatre, didn’t look like a challenging one.

Indeed, it was here as a kid where Dali initially had the chance to show his work so is a fitting place to show the cream of his life’s work. Dali himself monitored the building and development of the museum turning it into a huge surrealist playground.

Dali also produced some works particularly for the museum itself– the “Mae West Space”, the “Wind Palace Room” and the “Monument to Francesc Pujols and the Rainy Cadillac” are larger than life and exceptional examples of Dali’s fertile imagination.

Reina Sofia, Madrid
One of Madrid’s most celebrated museums, the Reina Sofia houses a big collection of modern art. When the city’s San Carlos healthcare facility, the museum was originally founded in 1986 but went through a severe revamp in 1990 at the hands of British architect, Ian Ritchie.

They imagined developing something to measure up to the Tate in London and the Pompidou centre in Paris, and, with 36,000 sqm of exhibition space, it is among the world’s largest museums and an incredibly outstanding place.

The most famous painting housed there is unquestionably Picasso’s Guernica, an enormous cubist work and war protest and most likely the excellent painter’s most well-known work. Visitors can also see the many preliminary sketches that he made for the work. Other excellent Spanish artists on display are Dali, Miro and Orteiz to call but a few in addition to Spain’s crucial artists of the last twenty years.

Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona
One of Spain’s crucial artists and often overlooked due to the lure of Picasso and Dali, the Fundacio Joan Miro in the Montjuic area of Barcelona is well worth a go to. Spacious and embeded in its own premises, the museum is an action far from the routine urban museums and galleries– the white structure developed around an internal yard is normally Mediterranean.

Big amounts of natural light aid to bring Miro’s surrealist works to life and the museum also houses some of his sculptures and ceramic works as well as the paintings he’s more famous for.

The museum also has a permanent exhibit area in which the foundation offers unique attention to Spain’s more experimental artists– not everybody’s cup of tea, granted, but worth an appearance if you’re visiting the museum.