Tourists in the city of London will have a lot to see and enjoy, from Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey to Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. It's in Trafalgar Square that you can find one of the world's most visited museums, the National Gallery.

The Gallery first opened on May 10, 1824. For the first 30 years of its existence, the museum was mostly known for its collection of Italian paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries. After 1845, however, paintings from England and Northern Europe were included. The Gallery faced controversy around the turn of the century, dealing with public protests by the women's suffrage movement and a later exhibition of Impressionist art that upset the cultural Establishment. Many of the paintings were evacuated to Wales during the bombing attacks of World War II, and after the war, it was difficult for the Gallery to obtain new artworks. In 1996, with new museums like the Tate Galleries on the rise, the National Gallery decided that it would no longer feature any paintings produced after the year 1900.

The National Gallery houses over 2,300 paintings, collected from the middle of the 13th century to the end of the 19th century. Its international and history-spanning collection features such monumental works as Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh, The Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci, Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio, and The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck. The works of English artists like John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough can be found here as well.

If you're planning your first visit to the National Gallery, you should keep the following tips and facts in mind. 

• The Gallery is open daily from 10 am to 6 pm, except on Fridays when it closes at 9 pm.
• If traveling by the London Underground, you can take the Northern Line to the Gallery. The closest Tube stations along that route are at Charing Cross, Embankment, and Leicester Square.
• Each period of art inside the Gallery is color-coded for easy navigation.
• Free lectures are offered every weekday at around lunchtime.
• Free guided tours are offered each hour from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm, and at 7 pm on Fridays.
• Visitors with children can enjoy free Family Sundays, when special art talks and tours will be offered.
• Food and drink can be found at the National Dining Room, National Cafe, and Espresso Bar.
• The Gallery features an interactive multimedia network called ArtStart that lets users plan their visit and explore the museum's 30 most popular paintings in-depth.
• The museum has been redesigned to cater to visitors with visual, auditory, and mobile impairments.

Trafalgar Square is reason enough to visit this section of London, but for those who appreciate art, the National Gallery is a treasure chest filled with European culture and history.

Image by Neil Willsey on Flickr