Parque del Buen Retiro Sunday (continued) We walked on to the the Palacio de Cristal in the center of Parque del Buen Retiro, photographing more birds, plants and monuments along the way. The 1887 Crystal Palace is no longer a greenhouse used to exhibit flora and fauna, but is now used to display art. The last exhibit officially ended four days before today, but was still in place. Written on the Celestial Bodies is an installation created specifically for Palacio de Cristal. The temporary installation by Soledad Sevilla explores the relationship between light, matter and space, combining analytical rigor and geometric order with a search for a sensorial and organic experience. It really didn't do much for me. I would rather have seen an exhibit of flora and fauna.
As we walked out of the Parque del Buen Retiro, we stopped to spend some time in the adjacent Real Jardín Botanico de Madrid. The Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid is a 20 acre botanical garden next to the Prado Museum. The garden was founded on October 17, 1755, by King Ferdinand VI, and installed in the Orchard of Migas Calientes. In 1774, King Charles III ordered the garden moved to its current location on the Paseo del Prado. We were just a couple of weeks too early to really appreciate this garden and the greenhouses were not open.
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