The park lends its name to no neighbourhood at all. The Retiro district covers 547 hectares and holds 6 official neighbourhoods called Pacífico, Adelfas, Estrella, Ibiza, Los Jerónimos and Niño Jesús, none of them named Retiro. The Jardines del Buen Retiro sit inside Los Jerónimos, which at 190.6 hectares is the largest of the six and nearly four times Ibiza at 49.2.
What is the Retiro district in Madrid? A district of 547 hectares with 6 neighbourhoods: Pacífico, Adelfas, Estrella, Ibiza, Los Jerónimos and Niño Jesús. None is called Retiro. The park lies in Los Jerónimos, of 190.6 hectares, the largest. The district is not a special-protection traffic zone.
The Retiro district is one of Madrid’s twenty-one administrative units, with six neighbourhoods delimited in their present form in 1987. Its most visible feature is that the space giving it its name is not a neighbourhood but an enclosed garden inside one, with access rules of its own that owe nothing to the district.
The park can be shut, and this is when
This is the detail that ruins a morning, and it comes from the municipal parks protocol rather than from anything district-level.
The Jardines del Buen Retiro are one of 6 enclosed grounds the Ayuntamiento de Madrid closes completely on a red alert, together with the Jardín del Capricho, the Torre Arias, Los Molinos and Fuente del Berro estates, and the Rosaleda in the Parque del Oeste. Unfenced spaces such as Casa de Campo only cordon off sections. It is set out in Madrid parks and weather closures and why the Retiro shuts in high winds.
The six neighbourhoods by size
The internal spread is uneven, and the neighbourhood holding the park accounts for most of that.
| Neighbourhood | Code | Area |
|---|---|---|
| Ibiza | 34 | 49.2 hectares |
| Adelfas | 32 | 64.1 hectares |
| Niño Jesús | 36 | 64.3 hectares |
| Pacífico | 31 | 75.8 hectares |
| Estrella | 33 | 102.6 hectares |
| Los Jerónimos | 35 | 190.6 hectares |
Los Jerónimos alone outweighs Ibiza and Adelfas combined. The wider naming pattern across the city is in Madrid neighbourhoods, official and popular, and the neighbouring district in the Salamanca district guide.
What to visit inside the district
The great Paseo del Arte museums press against its western edge, and each runs a different free-entry calendar.
The Prado opens a free evening window with conditions attached, in what the Prado free evening covers, while the Reina Sofía moves its window on Sundays and shuts on Tuesdays, in Reina Sofía free hours. No two of the three regimes agree, and the whole picture is in free museums in Madrid.
Driving and fares
This is one of the easier central districts to reach by car, with the usual caveat.
It is not a special-protection zone, unlike the Centro district and Plaza Elíptica, explained in Madrid’s low emission zones explained. An emissions label is still required, and street parking caps at 4 hours in blue bays, in Madrid street parking rules.
Frequently asked questions about the Retiro district
Can the Retiro park be closed when I visit?
Yes. It is one of six enclosed grounds the city council shuts completely on a red weather alert, alongside the Jardín del Capricho, the Torre Arias, Los Molinos and Fuente del Berro estates, and the Rosaleda in the Parque del Oeste.
Which neighbourhood is the Retiro park in?
Los Jerónimos, the largest of the district’s six at 190.6 hectares, nearly four times the size of Ibiza at 49.2. A large share of that neighbourhood’s ground is taken up by the enclosed gardens themselves.
Which neighbourhoods make up the Retiro district?
Six. Pacífico at 75.8 hectares, Adelfas at 64.1, Estrella at 102.6, Ibiza at 49.2, Los Jerónimos at 190.6 and Niño Jesús at 64.3. None carries the name Retiro, which belongs to the district as a whole.
Is it easy to drive to the Retiro district?
Easier than the old town. The district is not one of the two special-protection zones, which are the Centro district and Plaza Elíptica, though an emissions label is still needed because the city-wide low emission zone applies.
How large is the Retiro district?
547 hectares, close to the Salamanca district at 539 and slightly more than the Centro district at 523. It is one of the compact inner districts inside Madrid’s central ring rather than an outer one.
The district is called Retiro, and the Retiro sits inside Los Jerónimos, the neighbourhood nobody names.