There are four main venues in the Reina sofia museum: the Sabatini building, the Nouvel building, the Palacio de Cristal and the Palacio de Velasquez.

The Sabbatini building:

Founded as the Hospital de San Carlos in the 18th century, the building now takes its name from Francisco Sabatini, the architect in charge of its construction. The hospital was founded at the initiative of King Carlos III of Spain, as part of a series of measures to give Madrid the infrastructure necessary for adequate hygiene and urban order.
The building was left unfinished in 1788, it functioned as a hospital from then until 1965. After some years (1977) it was declared Historical-Artistic monument.
In 1980, Antonio Fernández Alba (Salamanca, 1927) remodelled the building to make it suitable for exhibitions. In 1986 it started to host temporary exhibitions as an art centre, to be transformed a few years later, in 1990, into the museum it is today.

The Nouvel Building:

In 2001, the construction of the Nouvel Bulding  began , it was going to be the “shadow” of the main building : the Sabatini building. It expands what the Sabbatini building does, without interfering with its central role. There are two big exhibition spaces, a library and a documentation center, there are also a bookshop, offices, eating areas and two auditoriums.

The Palacio de Cristal:

The Palacio de Cristal is one of the two exhibition venues that Museo Reina Sofía has in Madrid’s largest and best-known city park, Parque del Buen Retiro. It was built by architect Velazquez Bosco in 1887. We have a surprising effect made by a combination of cast iron and glass areas. It was originally made to be a greenhouse. Since 1990, it hosted specific projects by comptempory artists.

(Théo)