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Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro, a landscape of Arts and Sciences
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How it came to be
The Paseo del Prado takes its name from the Prado de los Jerónimos, the fields around the Monastery of San Jerónimo. Philip II, who moved the court to Madrid in 1561, had the royal retreat attached to the monastery enlarged. In the 1630s the Count-Duke of Olivares commissioned a park and palace, and the Buen Retiro became a stage for the court of Philip IV.
In the 18th century Charles III remade the boulevard as a space for the arts and sciences in the spirit of the Enlightenment. The fountains of Cibeles, Neptune and Apollo were set along it, and the Botanical Garden opened here in 1781. A building designed by Juan de Villanueva in 1785 for the Natural History Cabinet opened as the Prado Museum in November 1819.
Most of the palace and gardens were destroyed during the Peninsular War of 1807 to 1814, and only two buildings survive: the Casón del Buen Retiro and the Hall of Realms. After the revolution of 1868 the gardens became public property. In 2021 this urban landscape of some 200 ha was inscribed.
Data: Wikidata (CC0). Photos: Wikimedia Commons, under each photo’s license. Prototype; may contain errors. We measure usage anonymously to improve the app (PostHog, EU).