Point of interest
Parque del Retiro
in Madrid, Spain
Madrid's great park, a UNESCO site: a boating lake, the glass Crystal Palace and a rose garden.
Where it is
The roughly 125-hectare park lies just east of the Paseo del Prado in the district it gives its name to, a short walk from the city's major museums.
Address: Madrid
What it is
El Retiro is Madrid's green lung: rowing boats on the great lake, the 1887 glass Palacio de Cristal with rotating exhibitions, and shaded avenues made for strolling. On weekends the lakeside lawns are a popular meeting spot, the queer crowd included.
History
Laid out in the 17th century as a royal garden of the now-vanished Palacio del Buen Retiro for Philip IV, the park became public in 1868 after Queen Isabella II was deposed. In 2021 it was inscribed, together with the Paseo del Prado, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.