Retiro Park

In this post I am going to tell you a little about the place that surprised me the most during my trip to the city of Madrid. I never thought that it would be possible to find somewhere with so many different places to see inside at the same time, this is definitely my favourite park worldwide so far, the Retiro park in the city of Madrid.

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Retiro park is the perfect place to visit and share with your loved ones, is a quite quiet and cosy, a place where you can spend the afternoon chatting while enjoying a delicious picnic. You can sit down to read a book in the middle of nature, read your favourite book, play with your children, ride roller-skates, exercise and definitely anything else you can imagine! This is an excellent place for your Sunday plans. In my case, I was visiting the park as a tourist because it has very interesting places to see inside it, and also because it is a historical garden and is protected as an interest cultural location in Madrid.

It has an extension of 118 hectares, which is what makes it a quite big park, therefore if you want to discover and walk around the whole park, you must give it at least two or three hours to completely explore it.

What to see in Retiro Park?

The Glass Palace

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This structure of glass and metal was contracted to be made at the end of the 19th century, in 1887 specifically, by the architect Ricardo Velasquez Bosco. It stands out in all its splendor in the middle of nature. By the door of the palace you will find a wonderful pond where there are different animals, like ducks and turtles that usually approach the edge of the pond in search of food. This building not only has a magical presence, but it also makes up part of the Reina Sofia Museum, located inside it where you can quite often find exhibitions of contemporary art.

This place also has a romantic aura surrounding it. When I went, I had the opportunity to witness a boy kneeling down to ask for his girlfriend's hand in marriage. This place is great, even for lovers. Here's a photo of the event that we were fortunate enough to capture:

The Retiro Rose Garden

In the southern part of the park you will find a magical corner made up of less than a hectare, designed by the gardener Cecilio Rodriguez in 1915. It is always well cared for, but I suppose it is much more beautiful to see this place during the middle of autumn and especially in spring, which is crazy because I even fell in love with the place in the middle of summer... I hope to have the opportunity to visit this place again in spring because it would be a whole other experience.

The rose garden has different plaques that show and describe which roses grow there. There is also a wonderful fountain in the center of the place that gives it much more of a special charm.

The Retiro rose garden is open from 10 a. m. to 8 p. m. in spring and summer, and in autumn and winter from 10 a. m. to 6 p. m. Keep these times in mind so that you do not find yourself with the surprise of arriving at the park and not being able to visit this place.

The big lake of Retiro Park

Better known as the Retirement Lake. This is definitely the central attraction of the whole park, it is such an unparalleled sight. As soon as I reached the place, nostalgia struck me and I felt really far from home for the first time.

It has almost 40, 000 square meters of surface area and 55, 000 cubic meters of volume. For this reason that the lake gets its name, it was created in the first half of the 17th century and was originally used for recreations of various naval wars. It also had a small island in the middle where you could fish and where various plays were performed. Today, the lake is used for recreation and sports and if you take a walk around it, you have the possibility of going on a boat ride. Sadly, I did not have the opportunity to do so as there was a long queue to use the boats and also, it does not seem very appetising to row in the middle of the Madrid summer sun. There are also various rowing and canoeing competitions in this place.

In addition to this, around this lake we can also find quite interesting works of art, such as the following:

Egyptian Fountain

Built from 1819 to 1850 by the architect Isidro González Velázquez as a decorative accessory for the large lake in the Retirement Park, a neo-Egyptian-style fountain.

Monument to Alfonso XII of Spain

Inaugurated 96 years ago on 22 July 1922, by José Graces Riera, made from bronze and marble.

Marine anchor:

Placed in 1982 next to the Egyptian fountain as a bit of decoration.

Fountain of the Fallen Angel:

One of the sculptures that sparks the most curiosity among the visitors, and even in me, is to find out who was paying tribute to Lucifer. Officially inaugurated in 1885, the statue next to the pedestal, which is the work of Francisco Jareño, and the statue is the work of Ricardo Bellver.

Velázquez Palace

This, as well as the Glass Palace, is a building attached to the Reina Sofia museum, so you can also find contemporary art exhibitions here. This was built on the occasion of the National Mining Exhibition from 1881 to 1883 by the architect Ricardo Velasquez Bosco. Going to these places is a great idea for art lovers, I had the opportunity to go into the exhibition both here and the Glass Palace and it is really very interesting to see.

Parterre Gardens

The building began here from 1724 to 1746 during the reign of Felipe V. Inside, there is the bald cypress, the oldest tree in the city of Madrid with an approximate age of 400 years.

Door of Philip IV

The entrance to the Parterre garden was brought to this site in the year 1922, it is the biggest monumental door found in the city of Madrid. It was made in the year 1680, by the architect Melchor de Buenas.

The Door of Independence

Located next to the door of Alcalá, this one was built in 1817 by the architects José Urioste and transferred to Retiro Park in 1885.

These are the most emblematic places to see in the park, but below I will leave you a list of other things to see. I have divided them by type, as talking about everything would make this too long!

Doors: In addition to the two mentioned above, we have the following ones.

Door of Spain, Door of Madrid, and of Hernani

Buildings: The Hermitage of San Pelayo and San Isidoro, and the Royal astronomical observatory.

Ochavado Lake, this one was built before the big lake, but the specific date and time is unknown.

How do you get to the Retiro Park?

To enter through the Reina Isabel gate, you can take the metro on line 9 with a stop in Ibiza. If you want to enter through the Independence gate you can do so with line 2 of the metro, with a stop at the Retiro Park. As a last option, if you want to enter through Atocha, you have to get the metro line two.

As you can see, due to the size of this park, you have many options to get there by public transport.

If you come to this city, please make sure you are visiting the Retirement Park! It is an obligation. Keep visiting our blogs, as I will be telling you a little more about the places I had the opportunity to visit in this city and my experience in them.

Natalia Maldonado Lozano, member of the Colombian Globaltrotters.

Photo references:

All the photos without a source were taken during my trip to this marvellous city, the majority were taken by my cousin Magaly Ríos.