El Capricho, the romantic garden of the Duchess of Osuna on the edge of Madrid

In the Alameda de Osuna neighbourhood, at the far north-eastern edge of Madrid, there is a fourteen-hectare park that almost no international tourist puts on their list. El Capricho is the only surviving romantic garden in the Spanish capital, commissioned by María Josefa Pimentel, Duchess of Osuna, who from 1787 turned it into her country retreat. Work continued in phases until 1839, weaving together three styles: the geometric French garden, the Italian garden, and the freer, more sentimental English park. The duchess, a cultured figure of her time, brought in architects, gardeners and set designers to build a landscape made expressly for strolling and for surprise.

The garden

What you see today is the result of a long restoration. There is a lake with an island once reachable by boat, an artificial river, fountains, a maze and a series of small buildings scattered among the trees. The Templete de Baco is the most photographed neoclassical pavilion; in the Plaza de los Emperadores stand sculptures and busts; and then there is the Abejero, a pavilion built to observe bees from behind glass, one of the eighteenth-century oddities that make the park different from an ordinary public garden. It is worth walking without hurry: the vistas are designed to open up gradually, and every corner hides a column, a little bridge or a mock ruin.

The Civil War bunker

Beneath the lawns lies the more recent history. During the Spanish Civil War the garden housed the headquarters of the Republican Army of the Centre, protected by its distance from the front and by the trees that served as camouflage. Between May and August 1937 an air-raid bunker of about two thousand square metres was dug fifteen metres underground, designed to withstand bombs and fitted with several exits and an escape tunnel. It can only be visited on the free guided tours run by Pasea Madrid, at weekends, with compulsory booking on the site reservaspatrimonio.es: places are few and sell out fast, so it is worth moving well ahead of time.

Hours and admission

The most important thing to know before you set off is the opening times. El Capricho opens only on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays (closed on 25 December and 1 January): from October to March from 9am to 6.30pm, from April to September until 9pm. Admission is free, with a cap of a thousand people at a time. Inside you cannot picnic or bring food, and dogs and bicycles are forbidden: it is a garden-museum, not a spot for a day out. The dukes' palace, recently restored, is due to open as a museum in 2027 and will probably change the flow of visitors, so this is a good moment to see it while it is still quiet.

Getting there

Getting there is easy despite the distance from the centre: metro Line 5 has a stop called, precisely, El Capricho, a few minutes' walk from the entrance at Paseo de la Alameda de Osuna 25, and Line 8 stops at Campo de las Naciones. From the Puerta del Sol it is about thirty minutes. Buses 101, 105 and 151 also stop nearby. The best months are spring and early autumn, when the blooms and foliage give the garden the romantic character it was designed for.

Related guides: Spain off the beaten track: villages, islands and nature far from mass tourism · Instead of Barcelona: Spanish Mediterranean cities without the crowds or chaos.

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