Things to do in Aranjuez

Everything worth your time in the Royal Site, each with practical details: hours, prices, time needed and what few people tell you.

Palaces and museums

The Royal Palace of Aranjuez seen from the river weir, with water falling over curved steps.

Royal Palace of Aranjuez

The Spanish kings' spring residence, between the Tagus and the gardens.

Façade of the Real Casa del Labrador, in brick and stone, with statues on the balustrade.

Real Casa del Labrador

Charles IV's neoclassical folly, reopened in 2025 after restoration.

Charles IV's royal barge, gilded and painted, displayed in a brick hall of the museum.

Royal Barge Museum

The kings' pleasure boats, by the landing stage. Get in with your palace ticket.

Gardens

A tree-lined avenue in the Prince's Garden in spring.

The Prince's Garden

Three kilometres of garden along the Tagus: ponds, orchards, a barge museum and a pavilion.

An avenue in the Island Garden in autumn, with clipped hedges and golden trees forming a tunnel.

The Island Garden

Aranjuez's oldest garden, on an island between the Tagus and a channel, with 16th-century fountains.

Beds of red flowers and lawn in the Parterre Garden, with trees behind.

The Parterre Garden

The French-style garden in front of the palace, with the fountain of Hercules and Antaeus.

The town

The Royal Church of San Antonio, with its curved front, lantern and arcaded galleries on each side.

Plaza de San Antonio and the Mariblanca

The main square of Aranjuez: arcades, the round church of San Antonio and the Mariblanca fountain.

The endless arcade of the Casa de Caballeros y Oficios, in perspective.

The old town and the court city

A town laid out with a ruler in 1750 to serve the court: wide streets, arcades and corralas.

The curved brick wall of the bullring with windows and a small entrance porch.

Aranjuez Bullring

A bullring from 1797, built under Charles IV, with a bullfighting museum.

Yellow façade of the Teatro Real Carlos III with five entrance arches and a pediment.

Teatro Real Carlos III

The court theatre of 1768, still in use as a concert hall and theatre.

The neo-Mudéjar brick façade of Aranjuez station, with a clock tower and arches.

Aranjuez railway station

A 1920s neo-Mudéjar station on the second railway line in mainland Spain.

The brick front of the Real Cortijo de San Isidro chapel, with two small towers.

Real Cortijo de San Isidro

Charles III's model farm and the only surviving royal winery in Spain.

7.5 km, 12 min

Classicist façade of the Royal Convent of San Pascual between two towers, with an obelisk in front.

Royal Convent of San Pascual

Charles III's convent, for which Tiepolo painted seven canvases now in the Prado.

The church of Alpajés, in brick and white stone, with a dome and lantern under a blue sky.

Church of Alpajés

The church of the town's patroness, the Virgen de las Angustias, in the old medieval quarter of Alpajés.

River and nature

The Royal Palace mirrored in the Tagus from the Puente de Barcas, with trees on both banks.

The Tagus in Aranjuez

By boat, by canoe or on foot: the river that explains why the court came here.

The Mar de Ontígola lagoon under a blue sky, surrounded by dry hills.

Mar de Ontígola and El Regajal

Philip II's reservoir turned natural lagoon, and a butterfly reserve unlike any in Europe.

2.8 km, 6 min

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