Wednesday, March 27, 2019

If you’re looking for a peaceful, leafy place in Madrid, you really can’t go wrong wandering around the Real Jardín Botánico for a while.
On my recent second trip to Madrid, I decided to do a bit more exploring and spent an hour at the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid, an 8-hectare botanical garden located at Murillo Square, in front of the popular Prado Museum. The garden also is adjacent to the sprawling El Retiro Park, which is worth a visit as well when you are in the area.

The garden date back to 1755 when King Ferdinand VI had them installed in the Orchard of Migas Calientes, near what today is called Puerta de Hierro, on the banks of the Manzanares River. In 1774, King Charles III ordered the garden moved to its current location, and it was redesigned into three tiered terraces to look more like the popular French gardens across Europe at that time. Today, the garden contains about 30,000 plants and flowers, 1,500 trees and two greenhouses.
Since the March weather was warmer in Spain than it was back in London, I guess that I was expecting more flowers to be blooming. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed, so I imagine that the gardens would look more luxurious in late spring and early summer.

Still, if you enjoy gardens like I do and want to escape Madrid’s hordes of tourists, I would recommend popping into the botanical gardens for a bit.

Follow

Tagged: , , , , ,

1 comments:

Alan said...

Green spaces are all-important in urban areas. A feature that has been 'developed' out of the reach of Istanbuls residents. That said the 'Istanbul in Flower' season has started with some pretty spectacular lay-outs.