Alex Cheyne

What to say about this place? It is a convent which was endowed by several members of the Hapsburg Spanish royal family and consequently became very rich. To visit you have to join a guided tour (c. every 15 minutes, all in Spsnish when I went, and you may have yo buy tickets in advance). You can see a remarkable renaissance trump d'oeil staircase, a number of chapels, the choir containing a couple of tombs and then a number of rooms furnished with paintings and tapastries. I'll say again, the staircase is remarkable, but if you've been to the Prado, the Royal Palace, El Escorial etc, you won't have lacked for these. It is worth it? I thought so, despite my limited spanish, but if you are happy with just a taste of these things you may prefer to spend your time elsewhere.

+15

J

The negative reviews are exaggerated. It is a one-hour tour, you are allowed to take photos, and the monastery is full of beautiful religious and/or renaissance artwork. The tour guide was lovely and spoke clear Spanish. The security personnel behind us was weird, but subpar customer service is normal in Madrid. It was interesting, and while I wouldn’t do it again, I enjoyed the beautiful art we were able to see. If you want to go in for free, make sure you check the hours online. We were in the queue and the last people to get the tickets; they have a limited amount of tickets, so go early. You can’t get the free tickets beforehand. You’re meant to be an EU citizen or resident, but they didn’t check for us.

Kathy Redmon

Beautiful place with amazing art and history. The Rubens tapestries are not to be missed. I just would have liked more time here. The 1 hour tour doesn’t give you time to really absorb and examine the art and religious objects.

+1

Claudia Fene

Only few people at a time. Guided spanish tour. Very interesting place with lots of valuable paintings and statues. You are not allowed to take photos.

TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD

While the monastery was objectively beautiful, containing astonishing art pieces, chapels and other artifacts. The main issue rises from the fact that you are mandated to experience the museum through a tour that is done almost exclusively in Spanish. The people there were as if speaking English to engage in a simple interaction or pass on information was a chore and something disgraceful to their ethos. The Tour guide spoke broken English, which doesn't constitute an issue as proficiency is subjective, but he only spoke in 4-5 occassions while the rest of the explanations were in Spanish. Also, a staff member that was along to monitor kept closing the lights in rooms that I was in to shoo me away to move faster. Would recommend visiting, but only if you are really ardent with behaviours such as these.

Alexandra Soto

The place is lovely but the guide was quite rude and I learned nothing as I was worried to do something that would annoy her. The convent is spectacular and the history behind it is very interesting, I understand it's a heavy duty to deal with tourists all day long but a good guide holds so much power about the experience you get to live. It's such a shame I wasn't lucky enough. I'll hesitate to recommend this visit unfortunately.

Anton vernooy

it probably was nice and I’m a little upset to just give it two stars cause I normally give everything five stars but I just feel that they should’ve made it very clear that you can’t walk around. It’s a guided tour only and it’s only in Spanish. I was trying to buy the tickets online. It didn’t say, guided only anywhere that I saw it it was guided tour only . every other kind of monastery or anything else I’ve been to usually you’re at least allowed to walk around. And if you want to do a guide to tour, they offer them as a different package, but when we got there, there was a rope on the door and the tour was starting in a couple minutes, which was fine, but I think I should’ve maybe looked at the flyer a little bit more or understood that it was a guided tour. I just would like them to make that clear more clear when booking

Monica Lau

Entrance must be done by guided tour. The guide that we met was strict. The group was herded by two staffs at the back. I know they need to keep discipline within the monastery, we respect, but they need not treat tourists as pupils intending to commit crime. This marked the most unpleasant experience in Madrid.

Michael Laneville

If you don't speak Spanish, you should attend when it is free because to see the convent you have to join a tour and they are only in Spanish. There is no English brochure or signage. Lots of stunning art - but I learned nothing, which is disappointing for such a historically significant place. This is surprising as the website has English and likely there are enough tourists to be able to offer English tours. I inquired but the staff really seemed like they couldn't care less.

Lubana AB

Extremely impolite security guard, treating us and our kids quite rudely. We had to rush out of the room as soon as the guide moved. I share previous comments: the security personnel is unprofessional and agressive (the security guard with the group called her blond colleague at some point, and both of them were obviously trying to use power to abuse of it). The personnel being employed should be checked more carefully: they obviously don’t try to make the moment interesting nor pleasant. At some point the security guard even pretended that we had touched a painting though it was obvious that we were a meter away. At some point the security guard kept frowning at our younger kid, which made him feel si uncomfortable that he started crying. Their attitude is properly more appropriate in a jail or prison than in a national museum. It felt like being a group of animals with a dog barking next to them.