A Morning at Jardín El Capricho

A short and lovely Sunday morning visit to the gardens of El Capricho in Madrid, featuring flower beds, waterfalls, and classical architecture.

My wife suggested a new place to visit here in Madrid recently, and it was awesome. The trip was roughly 1 hour by Metro each way - not too bad.

The weather was great when we got there at about 10:30, and it had just started to get a little warm by the time we left at 12:30.

It was lovely, and the park was neat and clean. We both felt it was gorgeous, and we MUST bring back our daughter when she comes to visit us!

Here is the path as we started walking in, lined with purple flowers:

A garden bed of purple flowers lining a path — Bed of purple flowers lining a path

We quickly came across a rustic stone house, looking very cozy tucked among the trees:

Rustic stone house surrounded by trees and ivy — Rustic stone house in a pine forest

A bit further in, we found this bridge over a small stream. There is a boar fountain right under it:

Woman standing on a brick bridge with a boar fountain. — Woman standing on a brick bridge with a boar fountain

I think that the areas near the water and the flower beds were the most pretty. We spent a good amount of time here, as there were so many colors to see. Here are a couple of pictures of the flower beds to share:

Circular flowerbeds of red and pink flowers in a formal garden with visitors.

Woman standing in front of a circular flower bed with red and white blooms.

More flowers, and a few shots of us walking the paths:

Woman standing on a path surrounded by pink and red flowers in a garden. — Woman standing on a path surrounded by flowers

Here I am, standing on the path surrounded by the red and white beds:

Man standing on path surrounded by red and white flower beds — Man standing among flower beds in a garden

The garden also has some lovely water features. We passed by a narrow stream surrounded by lush green bamboo and trees:

Then we found this waterfall flowing from a stone monument into a lake:

My wife sat on a bench for a moment to enjoy the view of the pond:

Woman sitting on a park bench facing a waterfall and pond — Woman on bench facing waterfall

Here is the waterfall framed by the overhanging leaves:

Waterfall in a garden pond framed by overhanging leaves — Waterfall in garden pond framed by leaves

We kept walking and found some interesting architecture. Here is my wife standing in a brick archway with a metal gate:

Woman standing in a brick archway with a metal gate — Woman standing in a brick archway

Statues were scattered throughout the garden, which was also great to see. Here is one of a robed figure atop a tall stone column:

A statue of a robed figure atop a tall stone column surrounded by pine trees — Statue of a robed figure on a stone column

Here is my wife standing on the path in front of a classical building:

Woman standing on path in front of classical building with trees — Woman on path near classical pavilion

And here is a classical stone rotunda with columns and a central statue:

Here are a few more architectural spots we passed by:

A circular stone temple with columns and a statue in a park.

Woman in sunglasses standing under a vine-covered metal archway in a garden.

We ended up near the hedge maze, which had trees growing in the middle:

Hedge maze with trees growing in the middle — Hedge maze with trees growing in the center

As we were heading out, we took in one last view of the colonnade:

View of a classical garden colonnade with statues framed by hedges — Classical colonnade with statues in a garden

And here is a close-up of the monument with the columns and sphinxes:

Visitors looking at a classical stone monument with columns and sphinxes in a park. — Visitors observing a classical stone monument

A couple of practical tips: best to arrive early, as by noon it was busy enough that it was harder to take pictures. In some cases, people were waiting to pose at popular stops. If you are not interested in taking pictures, then it doesn’t matter much.

It is free to enter, but at the entrance they check bags for contents. I think they were looking for food items, but I am not 100% sure. I shared that I had a water bottle and they didn’t even have to look inside my small backpack.

It was a great morning. I hope you will find this interesting :-)

Bonus: this weekend was also Japan Weekend – cosplay competitions, concerts, workshops, video games, board games, artists, creators, and stalls filled with handmade goods and tons of merch – so the Metro had some fun company. On the way to the garden, of course I had to get a picture with this Mandalorian:

Will