Models you can touch
World landmarks at a scale that lets you feel their full detail, a completely different way to grasp architecture.
Emilio J. Rodríguez Posada — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tim Adams — CC BY 3.0 · Tim Adams — CC BY 3.0 · Emilio J. Rodríguez Posada — CC BY-SA 4.0
No, it is open to everyone. It is designed to be accessible to blind and partially sighted visitors, but the tactile approach works for anyone, and sighted visitors leave with a different sense of how a building is perceived.
If the idea appeals or you are with children, yes, since it is free and the experience is not repeated elsewhere in Madrid. If your days are few and centred on the middle of the city, the trip north may not be worth it.
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A museum run by Spain's national organisation for the blind, designed first and foremost to be visited by touch rather than by sight. That premise inverts the usual museum rule: here touching is asked for rather than forbidden. Its best-known section is a set of detailed scale models of buildings and landmarks from around the world, made at a scale that lets you feel their full detail with your hands. Alongside it sits a section of work by blind artists, and another on the history of reading and writing tools for blind people, including Braille machines across their generations. The visit is as useful for sighted visitors as it is designed for others: feeling an entire building with your hands is a completely different experience from seeing it in a photograph, and an unusual way to understand architecture. The museum is free and sits north of the centre away from the tourist route, so it needs a deliberate Metro trip. Go if the idea appeals or if you are with children, since it is among the most hands-on museums in Madrid.
World landmarks at a scale that lets you feel their full detail, a completely different way to grasp architecture.
A section showing art that is rarely displayed in general museums.
Among the better Madrid museums for children, because the whole experience is tactile.
Calle de la Coruña 18, northern Madrid