PARQUE DEL BUEN RETIRO

Known rather romantically (or clinically, depending on your inclination) as ‘the lungs of Madrid’, the city’s biggest park sits near the centre and covers some 350 acres of land – that’s about 175 soccer fields worth of green space. Inside you’ll find remnants of the former Retiro Palace such as the Casón del Buen Retiro galleries and the military museum Museo del Ejército, several chapels, a great pond and several waterways, statues, monuments, and of course, garden complexes. Gather around the pond for street performers, puppet shows and fortune tellers, and risk a row boat come summer. You’ll also find the Palacio de Cristal here. Made entirely of glass, bar the iron framework, it was originally built to house exotic flora and fauna, but now you’re more likely to find art exhibitions organised through the Reina Sofia galleries inside, and any wildlife safely outside its domed roof.