The Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain, is a research centre of the Spanish National Research Council. Founded by Royal Order of 17 October 1755 by King Ferdinand VI in Soto de Migas Calientes, near the Manzanares River, Charles III ordered it to be moved to its current location in 1781, to Paseo del Prado, next to the Museum of Natural Sciences that was being built (now the Prado Museum). This botanical garden houses plants from America and the Pacific, as well as European plants, on three terraces.
Today’s garden is divided into seven major outdoor sections and five greenhouses which allow the cultivation of species which are not suited to Madrid’s Continental Mediterranean climate. Total collections include about 90,000 plants and flowers, and 1,500 trees.
Terraza de los Cuadros – collections of ornamental plants, medicinal, aromatic, endemic and orchard gathered around a small fountain. All are planted in box-edged plots. At its southwestern end is a Japanese garden.
Terraza de las Escuelas Botánicas – a taxonomic collection of plants, ordered phylogenetically and set within plots about 12 small fountains.
Terraza del Plano de la Flor – a diverse collection of trees and shrubs, as designed in the mid-nineteenth century in the romantic English style. It contains the Villanueva Pavilion, built in 1781 as a greenhouse, and a pond with bust of Carl Linnaeus.
The garden’s two greenhouses are divided into four rooms. The Graëlls greenhouse dates from the nineteenth century and exhibits tropical plants and bryophytes. The newer structure supports three climates: tropical, temperate, and desert.
The Royal Botanical Garden is a member of the Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and the Ibero-Macaronesian Association of Botanical Gardens. It is also part of the Ibero-American Biodiversity Network (REDICOB) and the European Network for Biodiversity Information (ENBI).
Departments: Estanque de Linneo – Real Jardín Botánico.
Address: Pl. Murillo, 2, Retiro, 28014 Madrid, Spain.
Working hours:
Saturday 10 AM–7 PM
Sunday 10 AM–7 PM
Monday 10 AM–7 PM
Tuesday 10 AM–7 PM
Wednesday 10 AM–7 PM
Thursday 10 AM–7 PM
Friday 10 AM–7 PM
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