Just below the southern end of Juan Carlos park, in complete contrast, is this fully mature, French-style park, designed by J. B. Mulot (Marie Antoinette's gardener) for the duchess of Osuna at the end of the 18th century. It's cool, green, and tranquil, with every conceivable kind of European tree, plus gazebos, lodges, an artificial lake with islands in the middle, and a labyrinthine hedge-bordered maze (alas, the latter is not open to the public). After years of abandonment and decay (it was used as a military barracks during the civil war), it was restored to its full glory in the mid-1970s with later work carried out in the 1990s.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Madrid, 3rd Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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