Top 10 Gardens in Spain
Spanish garden history is inseparable from the country's cultural complexity: the Moorish tradition of the enclosed, water-centred paradise garden, inherited from Persia via North Africa, produced the most beautiful garden spaces in medieval Europe. When the Catholic monarchs reconquered the peninsula, they adapted and added to rather than destroyed what they found. Later, French formal influence under the Bourbon kings produced a second wave of great formal gardens. These ten represent the full range of that stratified tradition.
Find all ten on the interactive map.
1. Generalife, Granada, Andalusia
The Generalife, the summer palace and garden of the Nasrid kings of Granada, created in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries on the hill above the Alhambra, is the finest surviving example of Moorish garden design. The central Court of the Water Channel (Patio de la Acequia), with its long, narrow rill flanked by flowers and fountains and framed at each end by arched pavilions, is the garden image that inspired every subsequent garden designer who encountered it: the integration of still water, moving water, scented planting, enclosed space, and the view to the Alhambra beyond. A UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Alhambra, Generalife, and Albayzín. Best season is late April to May for the rose and iris planting.
2. Real Jardin Botanico, Madrid
The Royal Botanic Garden of Madrid, founded in 1755 and relocated to its present site adjacent to the Prado Museum in 1781, is the foremost botanical institution in Spain. The three-terrace layout, designed by Juan de Villanueva (the Prado's architect), follows a systematic botanical arrangement. The herbarium contains over a million specimens; the collections include a major historical rose garden, a Spanish flora section, a bonsai collection, and a significant tropical greenhouse. The garden played a central role in the collection and study of plants from Spain's American colonies in the eighteenth century. Compact and central; one of the most rewarding urban botanical gardens in Europe.
3. Royal Gardens of Aranjuez, Madrid region
The royal gardens of Aranjuez, 50 kilometres south of Madrid, are the finest examples of formal garden design in Spain and a UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape. The Parterre Garden beside the palace, the Prince's Garden (Jardín del Príncipe), and the Sailor's Garden (Jardín del Marinero) together form a complex of formal and landscape garden styles spanning four centuries of royal patronage. The Parterre was designed by Esteban Marchand in the eighteenth century under Bourbon influence; the Prince's Garden, extending along the Tagus for 1.5 kilometres, combines French formal elements with an English landscape section. The labyrinthine hedged walks and the Casa del Labrador pavilion extend the visit.
4. Pazo de Oca, Galicia
The Pazo de Oca, near Santiago de Compostela, is the most celebrated of Galicia's baroque country house gardens (pazos). The garden, developed around a seventeenth-century fortified manor house, is centred on two ornamental ponds connected by a stone boat sculpture — one of the most charming garden features in Spain. The formal parterre, the fountain court, and the woodland walks around the estate reflect the Galician baroque tradition. Privately owned by the House of Medinaceli; open to visitors. The moist Atlantic climate of Galicia allows exceptionally dense hydrangea and camellia plantings throughout the estate.
5. Parque del Buen Retiro, Madrid
El Retiro, originally created as a royal retreat for Philip IV in the 1630s and opened to the public in 1869, is Madrid's great urban park. The 125-hectare site combines a formal parterre garden (the Parterre Francés), the Estanque Grande boating lake, the Palacio de Cristal (a glass exhibition pavilion on a pond), the rose garden, the Cecilio Rodríguez garden (a Moorish-influenced space with peacocks), and extensive mature tree plantings. The weekend book market along the central promenade is an institution. The park's combination of formal garden history and democratic public character makes it one of the most engaging urban parks in Europe.
6. Park Guell, Barcelona, Catalonia
Park Güell, designed by Antoni Gaudí between 1900 and 1914 for property developer Eusebi Güell, was conceived as a residential park but opened as a public park in 1926. Gaudí's organic approach to landscape design — curved paths following the hillside's natural contours, the famous serpentine mosaic bench (designed by collaborator Josep Maria Jujol), the viaducts of natural stone columns, and the gingerbread gatehouses — makes Park Güell one of the most architecturally original garden spaces in the world. A UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Works of Antoni Gaudí. The monumental zone with the terrace and bench requires a timed ticket; the surrounding wooded park is free.
7. Cap Roig Botanical Garden, Costa Brava, Catalonia
Cap Roig, on the Costa Brava near Calella de Palafrugell, was created from 1927 by Russian colonel Nikolai Woevodsky and his wife Dorothy Webster on a rocky promontory above the Mediterranean. The 17-hectare garden uses the Girona coast's mild microclimate to grow a collection of around 1,000 plant species from Mediterranean climate zones worldwide. The castle tower (built by Woevodsky himself from local stone), the spectacular sea views, and the Mediterranean plant collection are the main features. The annual Cap Roig Festival of classical and popular music, held in July and August in the garden's natural amphitheatre, draws large audiences.
8. Marimurtra Botanical Garden, Blanes, Catalonia
Marimurtra, created from 1921 by German botanist Karl Faust on cliffs above the sea near Blanes at the start of the Costa Brava, is one of the most beautifully sited botanical gardens in Europe. The 17-hectare site holds around 4,000 plant species from the world's Mediterranean climate zones. The path that descends from the main garden to a clifftop promontory above the sea, with views north and south along the Catalonian coast, is one of the finest promenades in any garden. The collection is particularly strong in South African, Australian, and South American plants. Best season is spring (April to June) for the full flowering.
9. Real Alcazar Gardens, Seville, Andalusia
The gardens of the Real Alcázar in Seville, layered over Moorish foundations and developed by successive Spanish monarchs from the thirteenth century onward, combine Moorish and Italian Renaissance elements in a series of enclosed garden rooms (patios) and open terraces. The garden of the Alcázar predates the Generalife's Christian additions, and its mix of citrus parterres, azulejo-lined pools, clipped myrtles, and open terraces planted with subtropical species represents five hundred years of continuous garden development. Entry is included with the Alcázar palace ticket. The enclosed garden near the Patio de la Montería and the English garden of the nineteenth century extension are the most varied sections.
10. Jardines del Real (Viveros), Valencia
The Jardines del Real in Valencia, occupying the site of the former Royal Palace demolished in 1810, contains the city's oldest public garden (opened 1852) with exceptional specimen trees. A pair of Ficus macrophylla (Moreton Bay figs) with aerial root systems of extraordinary extent are among the largest trees in any European city garden. The formal bedding and fountains are complemented by the natural history museum building and the city's archery and tennis clubs. Less famous than its Madrid or Seville counterparts, but one of Spain's most horticulturally rewarding urban parks.
Visiting Spain's gardens
A Moorish garden itinerary — Generalife, Real Alcázar, Aranjuez — requires travel between Andalusia and Madrid but is coherent and rewarding. The Catalan gardens (Park Güell, Cap Roig, Marimurtra) are manageable from Barcelona with one or two day trips. Madrid combines the Real Jardín Botánico, El Retiro, and Aranjuez efficiently. Spring is the best season throughout Andalusia; early summer on the Catalan coast.
Use the map to route your Spanish garden tour.