---
node: spot_madrid_buen_retiro_park
type: spot
slug: buen_retiro_park
destination: dest_madrid
title: "El Retiro Park"
lead: "El Retiro was the private garden of a royal palace that no longer exists, given to the city in 1868. Its Crystal Palace, a greenhouse of glass and iron from 1887, is now an exhibition space and the best building in the park."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_madrid_buen_retiro_park.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atardece_en_El_Retiro,_Madrid_(15457435472).jpg"
image_author: "Gregorio Puga Bailón from A Coruña, Spain"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 2.0"
---

## Overview

The Buen Retiro palace burned and was demolished after the Peninsular War; the gardens survived and are now 125 hectares in the middle of Madrid, listed by UNESCO in 2021 together with the Paseo del Prado. The rowing lake with its colonnade, the rose garden and the Fallen Angel statue — one of the few public monuments to Lucifer — are the fixed points. Sunday afternoons bring drummers, puppeteers and tarot readers to the main avenue.

## Highlights

Row on the lake for a few euros; the boats are the reason the lake is there. The Crystal Palace is free and its exhibitions change; the building alone repays the walk. Come on a Sunday afternoon for the park as Madrid uses it, or at eight on a weekday for it empty.