The roots of the Real Jardín Botánico lie in medieval Madrid’s geography and its fortifications designed to secure the frontier between al‑Andalus and the northern Christian kingdoms. After Alfonso VI captured Madrid in 1083, the city expanded and walls built in the 11th–12th centuries enclosed new neighborhoods, transforming it by the late Middle Ages into the residence  of the Kings of Castile.  The botanic garden was founded in 1755 under King Ferdinand VI . In 1774 Charles III moved it to its current site on the Paseo del Prado next to the new Royal Cabinet of Natural History and the Astronomical Observatory—making it a centerpiece of Madrid’s “Golden Mile” of science and art.

Designed between 1774 and 1781 by Casimiro Gómez Ortega (as scientific advisor) and architect Francesco Sabatini, the garden was laid out in terraces following the Linnaean classification system. The Puerta Real and initial garden fencing were constructed during this phase. Later, from 1785 to 1789, Juan de Villanueva changed the layout, giving the garden its rational, scientific structure: ten hectares divided into terraced plots with circular fountains and elegant iron railings made in Tolosa, atop granite bases. The central Terraza del Plano de la Flor hosts the Pabellón Villanueva (1781), initially an orangery and later a library, herbarium and classroom

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the garden flourished as Spain’s botanical hub. It housed specimens from several major expeditions, including those to New Granada, Peru, New Spain, the Malaspina circumnavigation, and the Pacific commission, significantly enriching its collections. Its prominent directors—such as Antonio José Cavanilles — introduced exotic plants like the dahlia in 1788—elevating its scientific reputation across Europe.

Though neglected during the Napoleonic wars, the garden underwent renewal in 1857 under Mariano de la Paz Graëlls, who added a palm greenhouse and reorganized the upper terrace. A small zoo and additional structures further modernized the space.  Declared an Artistic Garden in 1942, it was closed for restoration in 1974 and reopened in 1981 with faithful recreation of Villanueva’s original terraces. New modern greenhouses followed in 1993, and an extra exhibition hectare was added in 2005.  Amid the urban landscape of the Prado and Retiro, the garden remains a living bridge between Madrid’s medieval origins and its Enlightenment ideals.