The Parque Quinta de los Molinos (The Farm Mills Park) is one of Madrid’s lesser known parks, so deserted in fact, that if you visit you will find yourself as the only visitor for miles around.

Parque Quinta de los Molinos is more of a wide-open space dotted with woodland than one of the careful styled and maintained parks of historic central Madrid. The park has paved walkways and dirt paths, perfect for cycling, crossing the entire 25 hectares making it the fourth largest park in Madrid. The Parque de la Quinta forests are a must visit during February when the parks famed almond trees come into full bloom. The Quinta de los Molinos Park is the perfect location for visitors, who after a few fays of Madrid, want a place to relax and best of all this oasis of calm is only a short metro ride away.

The La Quintana Park is to the east of Madrid in the San Blas district of Madrid. The nearest metro station is Suanzes on metro line 5, public buses that pass the main entrance are 77 and 104. There is no entrance fee to the park which is open every day between 6:30 - 22:00. The great thing about Parque Quinta de los Molinos is that it has not been devolved like so many parks, there are no shops or cafes, the real draw is the quiet and the fresh air. The other factor which has maintained the isolation of the park is that there are only four entrances in the entire 4km perimeter.

The formation of the park only occurred during the 1980s when the land was semi-abandoned farmland just within the city limits. The owners of the land came to an agreement with the Mardid council that the majority of the land could be used as a communal open space if a small proportion would be granted residential building permission. Both parties came away satisfied and allowed the previously wasted land be slowly transformed into a natural park designed for nature not visitors.

At the turn of the last century the first true owner of the area was the Count of Torre Arias who sold the land in 1920 to the architect Alicante Botí César Cort. He constructed a Mediterranean styled garden but after his death the park was semi-abandoned and used as a communal area for grazing farm animals.

Madrid Holiday Guide