Parterre Garden

The Parterre is the formal garden directly alongside the Royal Palace, a structured arrangement of geometric beds, clipped hedges, fountains, and sculpture in the French style that was fashionable in Bourbon Spain. It was redesigned in the early 18th century and has retained its formal character since.

The garden's central axis runs from the palace facade to the riverbank, creating a vista that frames both the building and the Tagus beyond. Walking through it in the morning before the crowds arrive is a particular pleasure. The fountain of Hercules and Antaeus is the centrepiece, and the pruned hedgerows create satisfying geometric patterns when seen from the palace upper floors.

things to do sight garden
A story
The Parterre was first laid out in the 16th century under Philip II, but took its present French-influenced form under Philip V in the early 18th century. Its central feature is the fountain of Hercules and Antaeus — a bronze sculptural group so large and so dramatically positioned that travellers throughout the 18th and 19th centuries mentioned it as one of the finest fountain groups in Spain.