What is the Museo del Prado? Today's Google Doodle celebrates Spain's national art museum

Today's Google Doodle is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Spain's national art museum, the Museo del Prado.

Opened on this day in 1819, the Museo del Prado is considered by many to house one of the world's best collections of European art with paintings from the 12th to the 20th century including masters such as El Greco, Francisco Goya and Diego Velázquez.

But the Madrid-based building, which was designed in 1785 by architect Juan de Villanueva, was not a museum when it was first opened and instead used a centre for the natural sciences.

King Ferdinand and Queen Maria Isabel de Braganza repurposed the building in 1819 and the name soon changed from the Royal Museum to the Museo Nacional del Prado.

A significant portion of the collection has been acquired through donations and the museum contains thousands of priceless artworks reportedly so large that only one-seventh of the collection is on display at one time.

A bicentenary exhibit earlier this year called "A Place of Memory" paid homage to the history of the museum, while modern collections from artists from around the world throughout the year have detailed how the museum is embracing the future at the dawn of its third century.

Happy birthday, Museo del Prado!