Museo Naval de Madrid

Naval Museum of Madrid

A beautiful museum with a large interesting collection about Spanish naval history, from the efforts of kingdoms of Aragon and Castilia, the many successes and few failures (what's known in English as the defeat of the Spanish Armarda has a section) in the 15th-17th centuries, the drastic decline in the 19th century and its consequences in terms of losing the country's empire, the division of the navy into opposing sides in the 1930s Civil War, to today. It's almost all labelled in English as well as Spanish. A temporary exhibition traces today's Spanish flag from its origin as the navy's attempt to have one that contrasted well with other navy's flags, and the museum has the very large flag flown by the Spanish flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar (the loss is blamed on the French admiral for insisting on sailing out of Cadiz to fight it!)

• free
• museum
• history

Address

Paseo del Prado, 5

Hours

Sep- Jul: Tue-Sun 10:00-19:00; Aug: Tue-Sun 10:00-15:00

Price

Free (donations requested)

Website

armada.defensa.gob.es (opens in a new tab)