It’s hard to get bored in Madrid; sometimes the difficult thing is choosing from so many cultural offerings. The capital reinvents itself daily with its theaters, museums, exhibition halls, concerts, and an events calendar that covers all interests and ages.
From exclusive music festivals to historical itineraries and independent film series, Madrid turns any day into an opportunity to discover artists, ideas, and unique spaces. So you don’t feel overwhelmed by so many options, here are 5 things you can do today in the capital: options selected from the best of the local agenda, including major premieres, temporary exhibitions, and small concerts, to make it easy to decide and make the most of everything Madrid has to offer.
The Villanueva Tunnel
After almost 50 years closed, this architectural gem designed by Juan de Villanueva reopens its doors to connect the Campo del Moro with the Casa de Campo. Visitors will be able to walk through the tunnel that José Bonaparte designed as a private exit and which now boasts its original proportions after extensive renovation. This small tunnel is partially reopening its historic section so that Madrid residents can discover its original brick and stonework.
The Prado multiplied
A good plan for these rainy days is to visit the Prado Museum to discover El Prado multiplicado: la fotografía como memoria compartida (The Prado multiplied: photography as shared memory), the first monographic exhibition that the museum has dedicated to photography from its own collection. Room 60 displays 44 historical images selected from a collection of more than 10,000 photos, documenting how the Prado’s works have been viewed and disseminated since the 19th century. The tour offers a glimpse of old views of the Central Gallery, the Murillo Room, and the sculpture gallery, with walls crammed with paintings, old heating systems, and even visitors and employees captured by accident. It is a perfect opportunity to see the Prado “from the inside” as almost no one remembers it and to understand how photography helped its paintings travel around the world long before Instagram.
Dance like no one is watching
Oliver Laxe ‘s new immersive installation at the Reina Sofía turns Space 1 of the Sabatini Building into a sensory experience halfway between a rave and a mystical ritual. Entitled HU/هُوَ. Dance as if no one is watching, the installation draws on images and the creative process behind his award-winning film Sirāt to invite the public to cross a sonic and visual threshold rather than simply “view” a conventional exhibition.
In the first room, almost in darkness, a pyramid of speakers inspired by the rave ecosystem emits a continuous vibration that acts as a preparation for the body, a kind of sound purification before entering the main piece. The second room houses an installation of three panoramic projections with desert landscapes, temples, and speakers turned into totems, among which human figures move to the rhythm of electronic music composed by Kangding Ray.
The exhibition, which can be visited from December 17 to April 20, 2026, is conceived as a meditation on the sacred, spiritual geometry, and trance, rather than a simple making-of of the film. It is complemented by a retrospective of Laxe’s filmography and a film program that reinforce his profile as a hybrid creator, halfway between auteur cinema and contemporary art.
The definitive urban art exhibition
Banksy, Basquiat, Haring, and many of the world’s leading figures in urban art come together for free at the Fundación Canal, in an exhibition that spans half a century of graffiti and street art—with more than sixty original works, a room dedicated solely to Banksy, and the presence of Spanish artists such as SUSO33, El Xupet Negre, and PichiAvo—to tell the story of how the language of spray paint has moved from the street to the museum without losing its political edge.
From €4.20
La Morcilla’s mixed sandwich combines crispy pig’s ear and homemade black pudding in a classic dish from the south of Madrid. If you feel like adding a gastronomic plan with a neighborhood flavor to your cultural route today, this bar in Villaverde is known for its mixed sandwich with pig’s ear and homemade black pudding, which is served for €4.20; it also offers a half portion of Trifásica for €5.30 with black pudding, pig’s ear with tomato, and offal.