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50 free Guernica trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Guernica trivia quiz covers both the painting and the town behind it. The easy questions ask who painted the great grey mural, which war it responds to, which museum holds it now, what colours it uses and which animals dominate the composition. From there it moves into the bombing itself: the German and Italian units that flattened a Basque market town on 26 April 1937, the journalist whose dispatch alerted the world, the general who blamed the victims and the code name the raid was given. The hard end is for people who know their Dora Maar from their Paul Éluard: the house paint Picasso had specially formulated, the vandal who sprayed 'KILL LIES ALL' across the canvas, the reason the UN's tapestry copy was hidden behind a blue curtain in 2003, the condition Picasso set before the painting could go to Spain, the German president who apologised to survivors and the dynasty of oak trees under which the laws of Biscay were sworn. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries on the painting, the bombing, the town of Gernika, the Tree of Gernika and the Condor Legion before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Pablo Picasso, Spanish Civil War and famous paintings quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Guernica, the great anti-war mural of 1937, was painted by which artist?
Pablo Picasso
Many critics call it the most powerful anti-war painting in history; it toured the world raising money for Spanish war relief.
Q 02The painting Guernica responds to a bombing during which conflict?
The Spanish Civil War
The war between the Republic and Franco's Nationalists ran from 1936 to 1939, and the painting helped bring it worldwide attention.
Q 03To which museum was Guernica moved in 1992?
Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid
It moved there in 1992 with about two dozen preparatory works, a controversial step since Picasso's will named the Prado.
Q 04Guernica is painted in which palette?
Grey, black and white
Some argue the stark monochrome came from Dora Maar's photography, giving the canvas the immediacy of a news picture.
Q 05Roughly how wide is the Guernica canvas?
7.76 metres
It stands about 3.49 metres tall, so it needed a studio big enough to hold it; Dora Maar found one on the Rue des Grands-Augustins.
Q 06Which two animals are the dominant creatures in the composition of Guernica?
A bull and a horse
Pressed for their meaning, Picasso insisted 'this bull is a bull and this horse is a horse'.
Q 07The bombing of Guernica took place on which date?
26 April 1937
It was a Monday, and market day, so the town was crowded with people from the surrounding countryside.
Q 08The German air unit that carried out the raid on Guernica was known by what name?
Condor Legion
Hitler sent it to support Franco, and Italy's Aviazione Legionaria took part alongside it.
Q 09The raid on Guernica was carried out under which code name?
Operation Rügen
Its stated aim was to destroy the bridges and roads a Republican retreat toward Bilbao would have to use.
Q 10The German officer who chose Guernica as a target was a younger cousin of which WWI figure?
The Red Baron
Wolfram von Richthofen wrote 'Guernica burning' in his diary the day after the raid.
Q 11Guernica lies in which Basque province?
Biscay
It sits about 30 kilometres east of Bilbao and had a population of around 7,000 at the time of the bombing.
Q 12Which British journalist's eyewitness account of the Guernica bombing alerted the world and Picasso?
George Steer
Picasso read the report on 1 May and abandoned the artist's-studio theme he had been sketching for the Paris pavilion.
Q 13Guernica was commissioned for the Spanish pavilion at a 1937 international exposition in which city?
Paris
At the unveiling the mural drew little attention, and some Spanish officials wanted to replace it with a more traditional painting.
Q 21In Guernica, the right hand of the woman trapped by fire on the far right suggests the shape of what?
An airplane
Her wide-open mouth and thrown-back head echo the grieving mother on the far left holding a dead child.
Q 22What did Picasso reportedly reply when a German officer saw a photo of Guernica and asked 'Did you do that?'?
'No, you did.'
The anecdote is widely repeated, though like many Picasso stories it is impossible to verify.
Q 23Which poet's 'The Victory of Guernica' accompanied the painting at the 1937 Paris pavilion?
Paul Éluard
The pavilion also showed Joan Miró's The Reaper and Alexander Calder's Mercury Fountain.
Q 14Which poet visited Picasso right after the bombing to urge him to paint it for his mural?
Juan Larrea
Until then Picasso had been working, somewhat listlessly, on sketches of an artist's studio.
Q 15Which photographer and Picasso companion found the studio for Guernica and documented its creation?
Dora Maar
At Picasso's request she even painted part of the dying horse herself.
Q 16Guernica was executed in what medium, formulated at Picasso's request to have the least possible gloss?
Matte house paint
American artist John Ferren helped him prepare the huge canvas.
Q 17Roughly how long did Picasso spend painting Guernica before finishing it on 4 June 1937?
35 days
Unusually for him, he let influential visitors watch him work, believing the publicity would help the anti-fascist cause.
Q 18In Guernica, what grows from the shattered sword clutched by the dead soldier's severed hand?
A flower
His other palm bears a stigma, a mark of martyrdom borrowed from the stigmata of Christ.
Q 19What blazes over the head of the suffering horse in Guernica, shaped like an all-seeing eye?
A bare light bulb
A woman leaning through a window holds an oil lamp right next to it, setting old light against new.
Q 20A 'hidden' image in Guernica is formed by the horse's nostrils and upper teeth. What do they resemble?
A human skull
Another hidden bull appears to gore the horse from below, its head formed by the horse's front leg.
Q 24Which notorious deal was signed on 30 September 1938, the day Guernica arrived in London for exhibition?
The Munich Agreement
Sir Roland Penrose organised the show with Labour leader Clement Attlee, and it later hung in a Manchester Ford car showroom.
Q 25For most of the period from 1939 to 1981, Guernica was kept for safekeeping at which institution?
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Picasso stipulated it should not go to Spain until liberty and democracy had been restored there.
Q 26In 1974 Tony Shafrazi defaced Guernica with red spray paint. What words did he write?
KILL LIES ALL
He was ostensibly protesting the treatment of Lieutenant William Calley over the My Lai massacre; the varnish let the paint come off easily.
Q 27In what year did MoMA finally cede Guernica to Spain?
1981
It went on show behind bullet-proof glass at the Casón del Buen Retiro in time for the centenary of Picasso's birth that October.
Q 28Why was MoMA reluctant to hand Guernica over after the 1978 democratic constitution?
The country was a monarchy, not the republic Picasso stipulated
Franco had wanted the painting as early as 1968, but Picasso refused while he was in power; both men died in the 1970s.
Q 29A tapestry copy of Guernica hangs at the UN in New York at the entrance to which chamber?
The Security Council
Nelson Rockefeller commissioned it in 1955 after Picasso refused to sell him the original; it uses several shades of brown.
Q 30In February 2003 the UN's Guernica tapestry was curtained off during press conferences about which impending war?
Iraq
Officials said TV crews complained about the backdrop; diplomats suggested US pressure, since Colin Powell was making the case for war in front of it.