The Sorolla Museum is one of the capital’s cultural gems. The Valencian painter’s home in Madrid welcomed thousands of visitors for years until it closed in October 2024 for renovations. Now it will reopen with a new space set to open its doors to the public on Thursday, October 15. This marks the beginning of a new chapter for one of Madrid’s most beloved museums, which will unveil more than 2,200 square meters of renovated and expanded spaces in the heart of Chamberí.
The official presentation of the expansion will take place on Wednesday, October 14, while the public will be able to visit the new museum complex starting the following day. However, the reopening will be partial: the new facilities will open while restoration work continues on Joaquín Sorolla’s historic home and studio, which will remain temporarily closed during the second phase of the project.
An expansion to transform the museum
The expansion project has been underway since 2022 and addresses a long-standing need at the Sorolla Museum: to have more space to preserve, research, exhibit, and promote the work of the Valencian painter. Until now, the museum was centered primarily around Joaquín Sorolla’s family home, a building of exceptional artistic and sentimental value, but one with limited space to accommodate new activities and services.
The project incorporates several adjacent buildings into the complex , adding more than 2,200 square meters. The result will provide the museum with infrastructure that was previously insufficient or nonexistent, including new galleries for temporary exhibitions, an auditorium, educational areas, a storage facility for cultural artifacts, restoration workshops, and technical spaces for the arrival and handling of works of art.
The new building was designed by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, the firm responsible for such notable cultural projects as the National Sculpture Museum in Valladolid, among other major national and international works.
The exhibition inaugurating this new phase
The reopening will be accompanied by an exhibition titled “Behind the Artist’s House: Architectures of the Sorolla Museum, 1905–2026.” The exhibition will offer a journey through the architectural evolution of the house-studio, from the earliest designs of the early 20th century to the contemporary expansion now incorporated into the museum.
The exhibition will help visitors understand that the museum has always been a space in a state of transformation. The house was designed in 1911 by architect Enrique María de Repullés to serve as Joaquín Sorolla’s home, studio, and venue for exhibitions. Over the years, that residence was transformed into a museum, and now it is embarking on a new phase to meet the 21st-century needs for conservation, accessibility, and cultural programming.
The exhibition will also offer insight into the expansion process and the challenges of renovating a historic building. It will not only be an exhibition about Sorolla, but also about the museum’s own history and how cultural spaces evolve to remain relevant without losing their heritage.