Three Galleries in Madrid's 'paseo Del Arte' Undergo Extensive Rebuilding

They have dubbed it the Paseo del Arte, the Art Walk, a rejuvenated route joining Madrid's three largest art galleries, the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, as each one prepares to unveil new wings over the next year.

All three museums are now building sites, with a jumble of cranes, scaffolding and exposed concrete pillars and beams.

But the culture minister, Pilar del Castillo, has promised that the three museums, all gathered around the tree-lined Paseo del Prado and within a 10-minute stroll of each other, will be ready for the inauguration of their new extensions by the end of 2004.

As she showed journalists around the new buildings, Ms Del Castillo boasted that the work being completed was "one of the biggest cultural projects in the world".

"Few European cities have such a high concentration of extraordinarily rich art and cultural activity so close together," she said.

When the work is completed, the Spanish capital will, in terms of space, add the equivalent of two new museums to its Art Walk. Much of this will belong to the Prado, the city's oldest museum, which is home to large collections of Goya and Velázquez. The Prado will double its space as, under the guidance of the architect Rafael Moneo, it absorbs the cloisters of a monastery and other neighbouring buildings.

The new-look Reina Sofía museum, devoted to modern art and home to Picasso's Guernica as well as works by Miró and Dalí, should be ready by March. The Thyssen, which displays the vast private collection built up by the late Baron Heini Thyssen-Bornemisza and his father, is absorbing three neighbouring buildings in a project designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel.

Ms Del Castillo said the government was footing the €150m (£105m) bill in the hope of increasing the galleries' 3 million visitors a year. But after the extensions are completed visitors may face a difficult walk between them.

Work is due to start on redesigning the Paseo del Prado in 2005 and will last for several years. Meanwhile, barriers are already up in the Glorieta de Atocha, which lies beside the Reina Sofía, as work starts on a new road tunnel.