Gardens of the Alcazar - 1

Leaving the building, the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen emerged, once more, into the gardens. They stretched for hundreds of metres in each direction, protected from prying eyes by high walls.

It would be trite to say there were formal gardens and parkland, as really all of the landscaping was in carefully shaped beds, bounded by clipped hedges.


Cutting through the garden is this wall, through which a shaded walkway allows the visitor to look down on the planting from the protective shade within the wall.


At the Alcazar end of the wall was a pool built up above the level of the rest of the garden. This had been badly affected by an earthquake in the 1700s and the King demanded the area raised to provide added prtection for the Palace in case of a further quake.

A continuous flow of water cascades into the pool from a drain above. Huge fish swim lazily back and forth as a few ducks sail back and forth quacking disdainfully (but no doubt in Spanish) at the visitors.