The Retiro and green Madrid
3 h route4 stopsBest: Sunday morning, when the Retiro belongs to localsUpdated July 2026
The Retiro is Madrid’s great park: 118 hectares that were the king’s private garden until 1868, now a World Heritage Site. This route enters through the Puerta de Alcalá, crosses the park to the boating lake and the Crystal Palace, and comes out at the Cuesta de Moyano, the booksellers’ street. It’s a morning walk, before the heat sets in.
Madrid has more trees per person than any European capital, and the Retiro is just the most visible part of that. On Sunday mornings the park belongs to locals: drummers, tai chi by the lake, puppeteers. Everything on this route is free unless you want to row a boat.
The route, stop by stop
4 STOPS- 01
Puerta de Alcalá
A granite triumphal arch from 1778, commissioned by Charles III as the city’s eastern gateway. Today it’s a roundabout in the middle of the traffic, but it remains the symbolic gate to Bourbon Madrid and to the Retiro, which begins just behind it.
Notice that the two faces are different: the king couldn’t choose a design, so the architect carved both.
Cross into the park at the Plaza de la Independencia.
- 02
The Retiro Park
The big lake works as the heart of the park, watched over by the monument to Alfonso XII, and you can hire a rowing boat. Sunday life clusters around it: musicians, card-readers, people sprawled in the sun.
From the lake any direction works, but head south for the Crystal Palace.
Look too for the Fallen Angel, one of the few statues in the world dedicated to the devil, in the south of the park.
- 03
The Crystal Palace
An iron-and-glass glasshouse from 1887, built to display plants from the Philippines and now an exhibition space of the Reina Sofía. It reflects in a small pond with bald cypresses and ducks: the most photographed corner of the park. Entry is free and there’s almost always a contemporary art installation inside, changing every few months. Even empty, the building alone earns the stop.
- 04
Cuesta de Moyano
At the park’s south-west exit, a slope lined with thirty wooden stalls of second-hand and antiquarian booksellers that have stood there since 1925. It’s Madrid’s permanent book market, and it’s for unhurried browsing even if you buy nothing.
From here you’re steps from the Prado and the Botanical Garden, so it links neatly with the art route if you have the legs.
Sundays are when it’s liveliest.
Frequently asked
How long does it take to see the Retiro?
A relaxed walk from the lake to the Crystal Palace and back takes one to two hours. The park covers 118 hectares, so seeing all of it would take longer, but the essentials fit in a morning.
Can you row a boat in the Retiro?
Yes: on the big lake, in front of the Alfonso XII monument, you can hire rowing boats by the hour. It’s one of the most popular things in the park at weekends.
When is the Retiro open?
The park is open every day from early morning until night, with shorter hours in winter. Entry is free, you only pay for activities such as the boats.