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Museo Cerralbo

The Museo Cerralbo occupies the palace built between 1883 and 1893 for Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa, 17th Marquis of Cerralbo, in the Argüelles district. The marquis gathered paintings, weapons, tapestries and archaeological pieces during his travels around Spain and Europe, and bequeathed the building and the collection to the State in 1922; the museum opened in 1944. The rooms keep the layout and original decoration of an aristocratic home of the late 19th century, spread over the vestibule, mezzanine, main floor and garden, with more than 50,000 pieces including painting, sculpture, furniture and decorative arts. Among the works are an Immaculate Conception by Zurbarán, a Saint Francis in Ecstasy by El Greco and a portrait by Tintoretto. The great ballroom stands out, with mirrors, gilding and a wall clock whose mechanism is hidden from view. The route passes through entire rooms just as the family left them, with no display cases separating the objects from the domestic space they occupied.

Things to do at Museo Cerralbo: 3 missions

• Find Zurbarán's Immaculate ConceptionLook in the painting rooms for Francisco de Zurbarán's Immaculate Conception canvas and note which room it is in.
• Enter the palace's private chapelLook for the small chapel on the main floor, with its altar and the family's private religious decoration.
• Look for the hidden mechanism of the ballroom clockIn the ballroom, find the wall clock with a mirror and notice how the pendulum is hidden from view.

Near Museo Cerralbo

Source: Web oficial del Museo Cerralbo (Ministerio de Cultura)