Spend the morning at the Prado Museum and you will walk past CaixaForum Madrid on the way to the Reina Sofía Museum. CaixaForum Madrid is the la Caixa Foundation’s exhibition centre at Paseo del Prado 36, showing temporary exhibitions in a converted power station with no permanent collection. Here one €6 ticket opens whatever is showing, every day from 10am to 8pm, Mondays and Tuesdays included. CaixaForum Madrid charges nothing to visitors under 16, to European Youth Card holders and to CaixaBank customers. The nearest Metro is Estación del Arte on Line 1, about 320 metres away.
Is CaixaForum Madrid free, and what does a ticket cost? A CaixaForum Madrid ticket costs €6 and covers every exhibition open that day, with no separate charge per show. Under-16s, European Youth Card holders and CaixaBank customers enter free on any day, and entry is free for everyone on 15 May, 18 May and 9 November, while the Prado, Thyssen and Reina Sofía use daily free time slots instead.
- Ticket: €6, all galleries
- Free: under 16, European Youth Card, CaixaBank customers
- Hours: daily 10am to 8pm
- Metro: Estación del Arte (Line 1), about 320 m
Is CaixaForum Madrid worth it if you have already done the Prado?
For an hour or two away from old masters, CaixaForum Madrid is worth it: it shows temporary exhibitions only, for €6, against €15 at the Prado, €14 at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and €12 at the Reina Sofía. Skip it if your trip only has room for painting; there is no permanent collection to fall back on.
Children and teenagers under 16 pay nothing at CaixaForum, and the current headline show is a projection-based experience rather than a gallery of fragile objects. The museums that do have free time slots are listed in Madrid’s free museum hours.
Which day should you fit CaixaForum into?
Pick CaixaForum Madrid for Tuesday, when the Reina Sofía is closed, or for a Monday afternoon, when the Thyssen opens free only from noon to 4pm and sells no other tickets. CaixaForum keeps the same 10am to 8pm hours all week, and the Prado opens free from 6pm Monday to Saturday, so a Monday runs Thyssen at midday, CaixaForum at 4pm and the Prado at 6pm.
That Monday costs €6 in total, or nothing for a teenager. The Prado’s free window and its queue are covered in the Prado’s free evening hours, the Monday rule in the Thyssen’s free Mondays and the Tuesday closure in the Reina Sofía’s free hours.
What is on at CaixaForum Madrid this winter?
Until 24 November 2026, the exhibition on show at CaixaForum Madrid is We Are Nature, a 70-minute immersive piece on biodiversity made by OASIS Immersive Studios with National Geographic footage. The Forteza brothers’ painting show closed on 2 November. On 25 November Interior Berlanga opens and runs until 23 May 2027.
- We Are Nature (until 7 March 2027): the show takes 70 minutes across three parts, from an opening visual piece to an animated gallery of roots and cells and a closing “living mosaic”.
- Interior Berlanga (25 November to 23 May): the life and films of Luis García Berlanga, built from his personal archive with the Spanish Film Library, mostly never shown before and laid out as a single continuous shot in homage to his filming style.
| Exhibition | Dates | Time to allow | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| We Are Nature | Until 7 March 2027 | 70 minutes | Families, with under-16s free |
| Interior Berlanga | 25 November 2026 to 23 May 2027 | Self-paced | Fans of Spanish cinema |
| The building and vertical garden | All year, from the square | No set time | Architecture-only visits, free |
From December to early March both are open, and the same €6 ticket covers the two.
What can you see of the building without a ticket?
CaixaForum Madrid’s architecture is free to look at from the square, and plenty of visitors come only for that. Herzog & de Meuron converted the old Central Eléctrica del Mediodía power station and cut away its base, so the brick block appears to float; it opened as CaixaForum in 2008.
- Vertical garden: start on the pavement for a 460 m² living wall by the French landscape designer Patrick Blanc, with more than 15,000 plants, on the party wall facing the square.
- Top-floor café-restaurant: it opens daily 10am to 8pm, sometimes with menus themed on the current exhibition.
- Laie bookshop: at street level, open until 8.30pm at weekends.
The adult guided tour of the building and garden costs €3, and group visits, which need advance booking, run in Spanish, English and French.
How do you get to CaixaForum Madrid?
The address is Paseo del Prado 36, opposite the Royal Botanic Garden. From Estación del Arte (Line 1), take the exit on Glorieta del Emperador Carlos V and walk about 320 metres up the boulevard. Antón Martín (Line 1) is about 450 metres away, and Atocha commuter-rail station roughly 11 minutes on foot.
From Sol, Line 1 runs to Estación del Arte in three stops without a transfer, and a Metro single ticket costs €1.50 to €2, loaded onto the contactless public transport card. Across the boulevard, the Botanic Garden closes at 6pm in November; prices are in the Royal Botanic Garden guide. For something smaller with a collection, Madrid’s €3 state museums are free on Saturday afternoons and Sundays.
CaixaForum Madrid FAQ
How much are CaixaForum Madrid tickets?
A CaixaForum Madrid ticket costs €6 and covers every exhibition open that day, so there is no separate charge per show. Adult guided tours cost an extra €3 for the building and vertical garden or €4 for the exhibitions.
Is CaixaForum Madrid free?
Entry to CaixaForum Madrid is free for under-16s, European Youth Card holders and CaixaBank customers on any day. Entry is also free for all visitors on three dates a year: 15 May, Madrid’s San Isidro holiday; 18 May, International Museum Day; and 9 November, the Almudena holiday. Otherwise the standard ticket is €6.
What exhibitions are on at CaixaForum Madrid now?
Right now CaixaForum Madrid is showing We Are Nature, a 70-minute immersive biodiversity experience using National Geographic imagery, until 7 March 2027. From 25 November 2026 it adds Interior Berlanga, an exhibition on the Spanish film director Luis García Berlanga drawn from his personal archive, which runs until 23 May 2027.
Is CaixaForum Madrid open on Mondays?
Yes. CaixaForum Madrid opens every day of the week, Mondays and Tuesdays included, from 10am to 8pm. It closes early, at 6pm, on 24 and 31 December and 5 January, and stays shut on 25 December, 1 January and 6 January. Bank holidays otherwise follow the normal hours.
How long do you need at CaixaForum Madrid?
We Are Nature, the immersive show at CaixaForum Madrid, lasts 70 minutes and is the only part of the visit with a set length. Interior Berlanga, open from 25 November, is self-paced, and the vertical garden can be seen from the street without a ticket, so total time depends on the archive.
On a Paseo del Arte trip, CaixaForum is the €6 answer to the day a big museum shuts.