The Retiro park or Buen Retiro park , popularly known as the Retiro , is a historic garden and public park located in Madrid ( Spain ). Considered one of the main tourist attractions of the city, it houses numerous architectural , sculptural and landscape ensembles from the 17th to 21st centuries , among which the Monument to Alfonso XII , the Crystal Palace , the Great Pond , theParterre , the Puerta de Felipe IV , the Royal Astronomical Observatory and the source of the Artichoke ; and even earlier, such as the hermitage of San Pelayo and San Isidoro , of Romanesque origin.
It was built in the first half of the seventeenth century within the landscape project developed for the Buen Retiro Palace , an old royal possession created by the Count-Duke of Olivares ( 1587 - 1645 ) for the enjoyment of Felipe IV ( 1605 - 1665 ) , of whom it was valid . Its use as an urban park dates back to 1767 , the year in which Carlos III ( 1716 - 1788 ) allowed the public to enter for recreational purposes And, definitely, from 1868 , when it came under the ownership of the Madrid City Council .
Due to the damage caused by the War of Independence ( 1808 - 1814 ), its current appearance is the result of the interventions carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries , although original layouts and elements from the 17th and 18th centuries survive .
With an area of ??118 hectares (1,180,000 m² ) and a perimeter of 4.5 km, it administratively belongs to the Retiro district , named after the park. It is delimited to the north by the streets of Alcalá and O'Donnell , to the south by that of the poet Esteban Villegas, to the west by that of Alfonso XII and to the east by Avenida de Menéndez Pelayo .
It is protected as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), a legal figure that every declaration of a historic garden holds in Spanish regulations. Within its limits there are more than 19,000 trees, representing 167 species, of which are six specimens included in the list of singular trees of the Community of Madrid .
The toponyms of Retiro and Buen Retiro refer to the functionality of the former Royal Room, a room attached to the Jerónimos Monastery in Madrid , where the kings retired for spiritual meditation and recreation. These dependencies were expanded in 1561 by order of Felipe II ( 1527 - 1598 ) and on them, during the reign of Felipe IV ( 1605 - 1665 ), the Real Sitio del Buen Retiro, a set of palaces, forests and gardens, which would give rise to the current park.
Such place names began to be used from a royal certificate, with which Felipe IV wanted to put an end to the nickname of El Gallinero that was being given, in a derogatory way, to the new residence. This term could refer either to the agricultural use of the lands that were annexed for the complex, 4 or to the exotic birdhouse in the gardens, built at the same time as the palace.
The park is also known as Jardines del Retiro or Jardines del Buen Retiro , although the latter name, strictly speaking, must be applied to the public garden area created in Madrid at the end of the 19th century , where today the Palace of Cibeles , on land that belonged to Royal Site (see Jardines del Buen Retiro in Madrid ).
Another of the historical names is Parque de Madrid , as can still be read on some of the entrance doors to the site. It began to be used when the Buen Retiro was municipalized in the last third of the 19th century and today it is completely in disuse.
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