Sorolla Museum (Museo Sorolla)

A genuine hidden treasure that sits quietly in Chamberi while tourists crowd the Prado. This is the actual house of Joaquin Sorolla, the Valencian painter known for capturing Mediterranean light with a brushwork that makes you squint. His canvases still hang on the walls where he placed them, in rooms where the natural light comes through the same windows he used as a studio. Seeing beach scenes painted with sunlight while standing in the room where he painted them is an experience that no major museum can replicate.

Sorolla lived and worked here from 1911 until his death in 1923. The house was designed around his painting practice: the ground-floor studio has enormous north-facing windows for even light, and the paintings on display include his most famous beach scenes from Valencia, portraits of his family, and the massive canvases he painted for the Hispanic Society of America in New York (studies for which hang in the hallways).

The garden, designed by Sorolla himself, is a pocket of Valencia in the middle of Madrid. Three connected garden spaces with Andalusian tiles, fountains, climbing jasmine, orange trees, and the sound of water. In spring and summer, the garden smells like the Mediterranean. It is as much the experience as the paintings.

Entry EUR3, which is absurdly cheap for what you get. Free on Saturdays after 2 PM. Allow 60-90 minutes. The gift shop has beautiful postcards of his beach paintings and a good selection of art books on the Spanish Impressionist movement.