Like Brussels, Munich offers a pair of very good museums which add up to a great one. The Alte ("Old") Pinakothek—a remarkable 19th-century survivor worth a view in itself—offers an important group of paintings dating to the early Renaissance, with particular attention to rare German works. The Neue Pinakothek, also originally built in the 19th [...]

For Old Masters, this is one of Europe’s premier showcases. A bronze Pallas Athene, perched above the 19th-century building’s great dome, presides over a fabulous collection of Vermeers, Holbeins, Bellinis, Corregios, and many others, plus unmatched exhibits of Rubens and Breughel the Elder, each of whom has a dedicated room.. The Sculpture and Applied Arts [...]

A leading guidebook suggests two full days for this world-class offering of fine art; the Prado is generally seen as a peer of the Louvre in Paris and the National Gallery in London—among the best of the best. Naturally the emphasis is on Iberian masters: this is the mother lode for Murillo, El Greco, Goya, [...]

Begun with items donated by its 19th-century namesakes, the V&A’s warren of rooms and halls offer a fascinating display of handicrafts, precious metalwork, and decorative arts from around the world. Elaborate costumes, exquisite jewelry, and breathtaking furniture give you an incomparable look into the rarified private lives of history’s royalty; there is also a great [...]

Divided into vast galleries by era and geography, the National Gallery and its newer Sainsbury Wing comprise one of the largest trouves of painting in the world. Italian and Dutch renaissance works are spectacularly represented, and you will be startled by encounters with more "famous"pictures—those iconic works you’ve been familiar with since childhood—than perhaps anywhere [...]

Even in this company, the British Museum would sit firmly at the head of the table. Possibly the most comprehensive and valuable assembly of treasures anywhere on Earth, the Museum’s massive roof covers critically important collections in the schools of Greek sculpture, Roman and Roman Imperial sculpture, Egyptian art, religious iconography, medieval artifacts, and a [...]

And when you think the endless Uffizi has shown you everything, you discover the Bargello. The focus is sculpture, and what isn’t in the Uffizi is here (except Michaelangelo’s David, which is at the Accademia Gallery across town) Many additional works by Donatello, Verrocchio, and of course Michaelangelo. The dramatic building has been both palace [...]

Uffizi Gallery; Florence Allow enough time for a leisurely pace through the Uffizi, home to the greatest collection of Italian painting and sculpture in the world—lest you fall victim to the Mal di Firenze, an apocryphal illness of ennui and disorientation, said to be brought on by "too much beauty." Michaelangelo (including the Holy Family [...]

Another combination entry, the Palace complex perched high above Buda and the Danube River houses three extensive museums: the Museum of Modern Hungarian History, the National Gallery, and the Museum of Budapest. Fine art from medieval to modern times, artifacts from the long and important history of the Magyar culture, and exhibits detailing Budapest’s 1,000-year [...]

Perhaps neither of these excellent but smallish museums would fall on their own into Europe’s first rank. But when taken together—as they readily can be, since they are next door—there is fine art enough for many an hour’s gazing. Matisse, Dali, Degas, and Gauguin star on one stage; while Rubens, David, Van Dyck, the Brueghels, [...]