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The Parque del Buen Retiro (Park of the Pleasant Retreat) is a large and popular, 1.4 km&2 (350 Acre ) park in Madrid , Spain not far from the Prado Museum . Once outside the city, Madrid now entirely surrounds the park. The park was originally the site of a royal palace built in 1632 under the reign King Philip IV . Most of the palace was destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars , leaving a space that was eventually opened to the public in 1868 . The few remaining buildings of the palace now house museum collections. Within the park is the ''Estanque del Retiro'', a large artificial lake. Next to the lake is the Mausoleum of Alfonso XII , featuring a semicircular colonnade and a statue of Alfonso on horseback on a tall pedestal. The park contains the ''Palacio de Cristal'', a glass pavilion inspired by The Crystal Palace in London and designed in 1887 by Ricardo Velázquez Bosco . Velázquez Bosco also designed the park's ''Palacio de Velázquez''. The park also contains 'El Angel Caído', the only statue in the world in honour of Lucifer , the Fallen Angel , as well as the Forest Of The Departed (''Bosque de los Ausentes''), a memorial monument to commemorate the 191 victims of the 11 March 2004 Madrid Attacks . EXTERNAL LINKS
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