Jardín del Rey Garden

The design of Royal Palace at Aranjuez included plans for two gardens to be located adjoining the building: one facing north, the Queen's Garden, and the other facing south, the King's Garden. Only this latter garden was actually built, during the reign of Philip II. It was designed as a small "secret garden" intended to be viewed from the windows of the king's room on the first floor, or from the gallery on the ground floor, which was later walled up. The garden comprises four central beds, divided to create another two compartments on each side. They are all formed by various designs created with box hedging, following an adaptation of classic Renaissance models created during their restoration in the 1980s. Between the ranks of box are different plants which provide a touch of colour and vary from season to season, including fuchsias, miniature roses and so on, as well as small potted orange trees which are taken inside to overwinter in the greenhouses in the Island Garden.