Thursday, May 5, 2011

The most beautiful parks and gardens of Madrid

Hi Everyone! Today I want to recommend the most beautiful parks and gardens of Madrid. These places are worth visiting

Gardens of El campo del Moro



Location:
Paseo Virgen del Puerto, s/n

Subway: Príncipe Pío (L6,10,R)
Zone: Príncipe Pío
---------------------
Admission Free

It was not called Campo del Moro until the XIX century, and was beacuse in these lands between the river and the Real Fortress, the hosts muslim camped during their stay in the village.
 

When in 1734 the Fortress was destroyed because of a fire, the Royal Palace rose in its place. When Maria Cristina was in goverment, the garden was designed inspirated by Versalles. It has some 70 arboreal species, some up to 170 years, two famous fountains: the Newts and the Shells that establish the axis of the gardens.

If the Field of the Moor is located in the facade west of the Palace, the Gardens of Sabatini are toward the North, bordering with the Cuesta de la Vega and the Bailén street. They are of classic style and around 1930.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Gardens of Sabatini


Location:

Bailén street.

Subway: Opera (L2, R)
Zone: Opera

---------------------
Admission Free
 

If the Field of the Moor is located in the facade west of the Palace, the Gardens of Sabatini are toward the North, bordering with the Cuesta de la Vega and the Bailen street. They are of classic style and around 1930.


The Sabatini Gardens, Campo del Moro and Plaza de España are not far from the Royal Palace there are several gardens: the children's playground in the Plaza de Oriente, the enclosed Sabatini Gardens on the northern side of the Palace, which are entered from the Calle de Bailén and have benches and well kept hedges and borders; and the so-called Campo de Moro entered from the Cuesta de la Vega. There are gardens where people lie under the sun in the spring in the Plaza de España, at the end of the Gran Vía.


--------------------------------------------------------------------

Royal Botanical Gardens

Location:
Plaza de Murillo, 2
Subway: Atocha, Atocha-Renfe (L1)
Bus: 10, 14, 19, 24, 26, 27, 32, 34, 45, 57, 140 and Circular line
Area: Paseo del Prado
---------------------
Admission 2€.

Designed 250 years ago, Madrid´s Botanical Garden invites visitors to enjoy a pleasant stroll surrounded by thousands of live plant species. Declared Artistic Garden in 1942, among its collections there is a herbarium with over one million specimens, a library and an archive with almost 10,000 drawings, as well as an exhibition of 5,000 live plant species. In this vast representation of flora, visitors find the collection of lithops or living rock cacti particularly astonishing. 

These cacti live in the deserts of South Africa and Namibia and survive thanks to their own particular defence mechanism: an appearance that makes them look like boulders and stops animals from eating them. Some of the other attractions that draw visitors to stroll around this garden located in the heart of Madrid are a cypress dating from the period when the garden was founded or a collection of carnivorous plants.


The entrance to the Botanical Gardens is the Glorieta de Murillo right beside the Prado Museum.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
Gardens of Retiro Park 




Admission Free


It is Madrid's most famous park, which located just behind the Prado museum, and it is an ideal way to finish (or for that matter start) any day in Madrid. The large Park was originally built as the gardens for the Palacio del Buen Retiro of Philip IV, in the 15th century but has been open to the public since the end of the 1800's. Among other attractions the gardens houses some 15000 trees, a working observatory, three exhibition halls, including which the Crystal Palace a building entirely built of glass and a lake.
Retiro park is a wonderful oasis of calm to the East of the centre of Madrid, it is the largest and most beautiful of all Madrid's parks is the Retiro. It has 130 hectares of woodland which form a green, tree-clad (more than 15.000 trees) island in the middle of an asphalt sea. One may enter it through any of the fine gateways. These are located in the Plaza de la Independencia, the Alcalá Street, the O'Donnell Street, and the Alfonso XII Street. White stone figures of the Kings and Queen of Spain peep out from the avenues of lofty tees and thick bushes, and just inside the park there is a large artificial lake where row-boats can be hired. 

The park also has its rose garden, as well as the Cecilio Rodríguez gardens and many delightful secluded nooks where strollers can enjoy a little privacy. In the middle of the park there are two buildings known as the Palacio de Velázquez and Palacio de Cristal, where art exhibitions are sometimes held.

It is very popular on Sunday mornings when people turn up for a leisurely stroll through its leafy paths. The park was once a palace garden, and it contains a boating lake and many majestic fountains. On Sunday’s you’ll also see Punch and Judy shows, tarot card readers and stalls selling candy floss.

 







There are several café bars throughout the park where you will usually also have the pleasure of listening to the many talented musicians who serenade the crowds. It is an excellent place to relax, making it one of the very popular Madrid tourist attractions.

My advice to you.. spend all day in Retiro Park..  
coz is very high!. Lot of thing to visit such the Crystal Palace, the rose garden, the monument of the fallen angel… Is a wonderful place to take pics.

2 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Very interesting artigle -and beautiful pictures-. I addition to this information I would like to recommend a secret garden in Madrid. Its name is The Prince of Anglona Garden and it's hidden somewhere in El Barrio de los Austrias, near Latina tube station.
    There are a few small gardens like this in Madrid. Normally people just walk by and don't notice them.

    I think it would be a nice thing to do to know Madrid better, specially for romantic people.

    Regards and congratulations for the article.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Small and beautiful....The Garden at the entrance of the Museum de Sorolla, actually the front yard of the museum...Amazing use of a small space.

    ReplyDelete