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The Parque del Buen Retiro (Park of the Pleasant Retreat) is a large and popular, 140 hectare (350 acre) (1.4 km²) park in Madrid, Spain not far from the Prado Museum. Once outside the city, Madrid now entirely surrounds the park.
The park was originally the site of a royal palace built in 1632 under the reign King Philip IV. Most of the palace was destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars, leaving a space that was eventually opened to the public in 1868. The few remaining buildings of the palace now house museum collections.
Within the park is the Estanque del Retiro, a large artificial lake. Next to the lake is the Mausoleum of Alfonso XII, featuring a semicircular collonade and a statue of Alfonso on horseback on a tall pedestal.
The park also contains the Palacio de Cristal, a glass pavilion inspired by The Crystal Palace in London and designed in 1887 by Ricardo Velázquez Bosco. Velázquez Bosco also designed the park's Palacio de Velázquez.
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