Madrid is imbued with art, history and monuments that can be seen everywhere during a tour of the remains of the old Moorish wall, the Gothic churches and magnificent Renaissance art works. Near the Plaza Mayor is the aristocratic centre with the Royal Palace, a huge 17th-century building in a mixture of Baroque and Classicist styles. Next to it, in the Plaza del Oriente, stand the Opera house and modern Almudena cathedral, consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1993.Madrid has several museums near your hotel in Madrid, especially the Prado Museum, one of the most important art galleries in the world; the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum with seven centuries of European paintings, tapestries and sculptures in an area of 8000 m2; the Reina Sofía Museum with modern art by Salvador Dalí, Miró, Juan Gris and Picasso; all three are in the Paseo del Prado. The National Archaeological Museum tells the history of man through archaeological and ethnographic objects, coins and decorative art; the Cerralbo Museum holds a collection of over 50,000 pieces of art from various times and artists; the Real Fábrica tapestry factory is almost 300 years old; the Railway Museum has the finest collection of old locomotives and carriages in Europe; the Wax Museum houses the most famous people from Spanish history; the San Fernando Fine Arts Museum and Academy shows art from Spain, Italy and Flanders with collections of Goya and Pereda; the National Anthropology Museum displays cultural diversity from five continents. There is also the House and Museum of the artist Joaquín Sorolla; and the National Natural Science Museum with its minerals, plants and animals from every continent.