The palace axis
Lawn climbing to the full façade — Madrid's grand royal picture.
Bjaglin from Sweden — CC BY 2.0 · Pedro J Pacheco — CC BY-SA 3.0 es · Américo Toledano — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Américo Toledano — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Campo del Moro — "the Moor's field" — is the Royal Palace's garden falling towards the river, its name literal history: here the Almoravid army camped in 1109 attempting to retake Andalusi Mayrit, and the ground has kept their memory nine centuries. It is the quietest of Madrid's free jewels: twenty English-style hectares whose green axis climbs from the lower gate to the palace's full-height façade — the greatest view of the palace there is, and among its least visited. The Shells and Tritons fountains punctuate the axis, and free-roaming peacocks own the paths with complete royalty. Its only entrance is riverside below the bluff — the secret of its emptiness — so pair it with the revived Manzanares river walk, or descend into it after the palace visit.
Lawn climbing to the full façade — Madrid's grand royal picture.
Free flocks parading the paths.
The eighteenth-century jewel at mid-axis.
Paseo Virgen del Puerto, 28005 Madrid
Royal Palace of MadridMadrid's Royal Palace is western Europe's largest working palace: 135,000 square5 minutes walk4.6
Royal Collections GalleryThe gallery opened in summer 2023 beside the Royal Palace. From the palace espla5 minutes walk4.7
Sabatini GardensFormal gardens on the north side of Madrid's Royal Palace, laid out in the neocl6 minutes walk4.7
Almudena CathedralThe Almudena is Madrid's young cathedral — its story stranger than its age: Cath6 minutes walk4.7
Temple of DebodA genuine two-thousand-year-old Egyptian temple stands on a Madrid hill — Debod,8 minutes walk4.5Site geometry: no entry from the crowded palace square, only a descent and loop to the river gate — so tourists settle for the upper terrace. Whoever descends wins the whole palace as a nearly private backdrop.
After the palace, walk Bailén south then right to the river — ten minutes to the gate. Or make it a station on the modern Madrid Río riverside walk. Sunset gilds the palace façade precisely from here.