Best Museums in Europe | Art, History & Cultural Collections

Istanbul Archaeological Museums

A massive, world-class museum complex housing over a million artifacts from across the ancient world, featuring extraordinary Hellenistic sarcophagi and ancient Near Eastern treasures.

Prado Museum

Spain's national art museum on the Paseo del Prado, holding masterpieces by Velázquez, Goya, El Greco and Bosch under one Neoclassical roof.

Reina Sofía Museum

Spain's national museum of modern and contemporary art, home to Picasso's Guernica inside a converted 18th-century hospital.

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

A vast private collection turned national museum, tracing Western painting from medieval panels to 20th-century masters.

National Archaeological Museum

Spain's leading archaeology museum, tracing the country's history from prehistory to the 19th century, with the Lady of Elche as its most famous piece.

Pergamon Museum

Berlin's antiquities museum, famed for the Pergamon Altar and Ishtar Gate, now closed for renovation.

Antalya Archaeological Museum

One of Türkiye's largest archaeology museums, currently closed for a major rebuild after a seismic risk finding.

FC Barcelona Museum entrance and Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain

Camp Nou / FC Barcelona Museum

FC Barcelona's giant home stadium and club museum, currently mid-renovation as part of the Espai Barça project.

Picasso Museum

Housed in five Gothic palaces, this museum traces Picasso's formative years through the world's largest collection of his early work.

Pinacoteca di Brera

Milan's principal public picture gallery, housing masterpieces by Raphael, Mantegna, and Caravaggio inside the historic Palazzo Brera.

Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology

A sprawling former monastery in Milan holding Leonardo da Vinci's model inventions, historic trains, planes and a submarine you can board.

National Museum

The Czech Republic's oldest and largest museum, housed in a grand 19th-century building overlooking Wenceslas Square.

Jerónimos Monastery

A 16th-century Manueline monastery in Belém, Jerónimos is one of Lisbon's grandest UNESCO World Heritage sites and the resting place of Vasco da Gama.

National Tile Museum in Lisbon, Portugal, featuring its ornate façade decorated with blue-and-white azulejo tiles.

National Tile Museum (Museu Nacional do Azulejo)

Housed in a 16th-century convent, Lisbon's National Tile Museum traces the history of Portuguese azulejo tilework from the 1400s to today.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

A Grand Canal palazzo showing Peggy Guggenheim's personal collection of Cubist, Surrealist, and Abstract Expressionist art.