Located in the district of Barajas and with an area of ​​14 hectares, the first thing we can say is that El Capricho It is much more than a park, it is an artistic garden, the only romantic garden preserved in Madrid. A historic garden. We owe its construction to the wishes of the Duchess of Osuna to have a recreational village where she could get away from the Court. A space where you can carry out your personal whim. A private garden dotted with thematic spaces (a estuary “serpentine” with a lake and island, the pier or “house of reeds”, the temple of Bacchus, the “old woman's house”, the fort, the hermitage, or the “beekeeper”, a surprising pavilion made only to contemplate the activity of the bees , the Exedra, a duelists' walk, a bullring and many more spaces) where the dukes would develop their entertainment, lavish parties and eighteenth-century fantasies. Let's focus for a moment on her, Mrs. María Josefa de la Soledad Alonso Pimentel, considered one of the most intelligent women of the time, was a patron of artists (among them all, her relationship with Goya), bullfighters and intellectuals, was in possession of an endless list of noble titles, among others: countess-duchess of Benavente, of Béjar and as consort of Don Pedro Alcántara, IX Duke of Osuna who was a lover of literature and music, she was also Duchess of Osuna.

The construction of the garden, probably the most beautiful in Madrid, took place between 1787 and 1839. Different gardeners from the Spanish and French royal houses were involved, such as Jean Baptiste Mulot, who came from working in Versailles.

It houses three different types of gardens. The parterre or French garden, with its characteristic uniformity in the hedges and trees, located in front of the rear façade of the Palace. The Italian giardino, with its combination of hedges and trees growing in such a way that it protects us from the sun in summer and takes advantage of its heat in winter, is located to the south of the Palace, in a space that cannot currently be visited, located in the most old part of the gardens, on a lower level of the land. The English landscape garden is the largest; In it, the vegetation grows in a freer, less artificial way, inviting us to get lost along its paths.

The mansion, the largest construction, a delicate work of Antonio and Martín López Aguado, once housed numerous paintings by Goya.

In the park there is an iron bridge that was built in 1830 when this material had not yet been used by civil engineers. It is reputed to be the first in all of Spain.

During the War of Independence, first and in the Civil War later, the site suffered serious damage. In the first, the French general Agustín Belliard used it as a camp for his troops. During the Civil War, a bunker in 1937 in the area called 'Jaca Position', base of the Northeast defense of Madrid by General Miaja, next to the Palace that was opened on some occasions last year and of which we can see two entrances and its ventilation chimneys.

In the summer of 1936 the labyrinth was destroyed by the emergency landing of a mail plane from neighboring Barajas; today, luckily, it has been recovered, although it is outside the visitable area.

I leave you a link with one detailed explanation of the garden and also a map.

If you don't know it yet, this is an ideal time to visit it. Keep in mind that it is only open on weekends.

A abrazo.