Before heading to the third floor to delight in the frolic of Goya’s tapestry cartoons, I got a whiff of fresh coffee and, sensing I’d cut myself calorically short with that wee omelet for lunch, I followed my nose into the tiny new Café Jonicos and cookie shop tucked behind the central gallery. Sipping and chewing in surprising proximity to Rubens’s “Three Graces,” I mused on how much had changed since I had arrived in Madrid, when the Prado was among the most old-school of the world’s big-name museums, with surprisingly limited weekend and holiday hours, endless lines and a lackluster shop and cafe. Today, it’s a model of accessibility, open a minimum of nine hours a day (two of them with free admission), online ticket sales, hands-on exhibitions for the vision-impaired, a guide for the L.G.B.T. community, free online courses available to anyone, and now a coffee and cookie bar.

More impressive still is what’s grown up around it — not just in my time, but in the 200 years since it was founded. Once on the edge of the city, the Prado, which means ‘meadow,’ is now the heart of one of the world’s most vibrant and diverse art districts — with the Reina Sofia Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, the Royal Botanical Garden, National Museum of Decorative Arts and the CaixaForum Madrid art space, not to mention the extraordinary Naval Museum, literally steps away. And at least 100 galleries, design and antiques shops line the surrounding streets. While no one needs to spend seven hours in one building, it would be easy to spend several days indulging in art appreciation in the neighborhood.

After nearly 12,000 steps (about six miles), my final stop was a new, almost vault-like gallery tucked under the eaves in the North Tower, showcasing one final surprise: a collection of nearly 150 exquisite hardstone-and-rock-crystal goblets, platters and other objects adorned with gold and silver and known as the Dauphin’s Treasure.

Maybe I was delirious at this point, but these stunning and delicate objects displayed next to the extraordinary padded leather cases that perfectly mimic the shape of the objects they carry — and are also centuries old — provide a fitting metaphor for the Prado itself: artistic perfection inside and out.

Andrew Ferren, a Madrid-based freelance writer, is a frequent contributor to the Travel section.

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