Part I: Parks of Madrid – there is one for everybody!

An entrance to
Retiro Park Madrid

The sun has finally found its way to Madrid and so we are more than happy to show you how to enjoy the weather in the numerous parks in Madrid. After the winter freeze and rain all day we’re all more than ready for the Madrid summer holiday feeling! For that reason we would like to suggest you some of the most precious parks of Madrid to visit and tell you some facts of interest about each one of them. We also tried to “categorize” them a little bit to make it easier for you to find your favorite park out of Madrid top 8!

This is article one of a two articles we are doing on Madrid wonderful parks. Next week we will post the article two with more amazing parks of Madrid! Make your private ranking list, visit one after another and discover the nature of Madrid!

The Retiro Park

Spanish courses at AIL Madrid
at Retiro Park Madrid

Let’s start off with the most popular and well known park in the city centre of Madrid: the Parque del Buen Retiro, the former royal park of the Spanish monarchy. 

The huge park with about 1.2 km² offers you a broad range of activities such like having a ride on the bike, row a boat on the lake next to the equestrian statue of King Alfonso XII, watch the variety of street musicians, sidewalk painters, fortune tellers, jugglers and street performers or just sit down, relax and enjoy the nature of the park right in the centre of Madrid. The Retiro Park includes the amazing rose garden Rosaleda and the Palacio de Cristal as well as the Palacio de Velázquez which are now mainly used for temporary exhibitions. Apart from that, in the Retiro Park you can also find the Museo del Ejército, an army museum which covers Spain’s military history, and the Casón del Buen Retiro, a museum with a collection of 19^th and 20^th century paintings. 

The Fallen Angel
Retiro Park Madrid

Keep your eyes open and discover all the nature of the Retiro Park- there are a lot of nice things that you probably won’t see at first sight! For example you can find peacocks in the east of the Retiro Park or the famous Fountain of the Fallen Angel within the rose garden which is said to be the only public statue worldwide representing Lucifer, the devil falling from heaven. Furthermore, there is the Statue Walk, the Paseo de los Estatuas, which shows various statues of former kings. In the Retiro Park you can also find the Forest of the Departed (Bosque de los Ausentes), a memorial monument to commemorate the 191 victims of the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks. There are also some beautiful details to discover when you’re walking through the little walkways of the Retiro Park like the Casita del Pescador, the artificial mountain or even the nice little river. So why don’t you seize the opportunity and discover the huge park territory? By the way, the Retiro  Park is just about 5 minutes by foot from our school! (Metro: Retiro)

This is article one of a two articles we are doing on Madrid wonderful parks (see also Parks in Madrid Part 2). Thanks for reading, and if you want to know more, just subscribe to our blog and we will keep you updated!