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Greenhouses to visit in Spain

The Verrière atlas lists 18 greenhouses in Spain, built between 1856 and 2017.

In Spain, the greenhouse owes much to nineteenth-century iron architecture: the Hivernacle de Monleón in Valencia, presented as the first Spanish building in iron and glass, the Hivernacle in Barcelona's Parc de la Ciutadella, reopened in 2023, and the Palacio de Cristal in the Retiro, under restoration until 2027. Madrid also has conversions: a former cattle-market hall turned glasshouse at Arganzuela, and Atocha station, where a palm forest replaced the tracks in 1992 (the garden is closed for works). Andalusia and the Canaries add more recent creations: Estepona's three-domed orchid house and the butterfly houses of Benalmádena and Icod de los Vinos.

18Greenhouses
1856Oldest — Invernaderos of the Real Jardín Botánico (Graells Greenhouse and Santiago Castroviejo Greenhouse)
2017Newest — Desert City (cactus greenhouse and garden)
13Cities
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All 18 greenhouses, oldest to newest

Invernaderos of the Real Jardín Botánico (Graells Greenhouse and Santiago Castroviejo Greenhouse), Madrid, Community of Madrid
1856 · 1993

Invernaderos of the Real Jardín Botánico (Graells Greenhouse and Santiago Castroviejo Greenhouse)

🇪🇸 Madrid, Community of Madrid
A small cast-iron glasshouse of 1856 and a large exhibition greenhouse of 1993 stand side by side on the upper terrace of Charles III's garden.
SpainView entry →
Monleón Greenhouse, Jardí Botànic of the University of Valencia, Valencia, Valencian Community
1860–1862

Monleón Greenhouse, Jardí Botànic of the University of Valencia

🇪🇸 Valencia, Valencian Community
Designed in 1859 by Sebastià Monleón, this iron-and-glass house is presented as the first building in Spain constructed with those materials.
SpainView entry →
Palacio de Cristal, Retiro Park, Madrid
1887

Palacio de Cristal

🇪🇸 Retiro Park, Madrid
A colonial-era greenhouse turned cathedral of contemporary art.
SpainView entry →
Hivernacle del Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona, Catalonia
1888

Hivernacle del Parc de la Ciutadella

🇪🇸 Barcelona, Catalonia
Alexandre de Riquer's floral panels, hidden under paint for decades, were brought back to light in 2023.
SpainView entry →
1889

Vivero de Estufas, El Retiro (historic greenhouse nursery)

🇪🇸 Madrid, Community of Madrid
Gathered in a corner of the Retiro from 1889 onwards, its nineteen old greenhouses form a group that the city describes as unique in Spain.
SpainView entry →
Pazo de Lourizán Greenhouse (Invernadoiro de Lourizán), Pontevedra, Galicia
1900 · 1953

Pazo de Lourizán Greenhouse (Invernadoiro de Lourizán)

🇪🇸 Pontevedra, Galicia
Listed with the pazo in 2025, this 1900 greenhouse is rated among Galicia's finest for the lightness of its structure.
SpainView entry →
Atocha Station Tropical Garden (Jardín Tropical de Atocha), Madrid, Community of Madrid
1992 · 1892

Atocha Station Tropical Garden (Jardín Tropical de Atocha)

🇪🇸 Madrid, Community of Madrid
The tracks of Madrid's old Mediodía station, opened in 1892, gave way in 1992 to a forest of palms beneath the glass roof.
SpainView entry →
Palacio de Cristal de la Arganzuela (greenhouse), Madrid, Community of Madrid
1992 · 1928

Palacio de Cristal de la Arganzuela (greenhouse)

🇪🇸 Madrid, Community of Madrid
A former Madrid livestock-market hall with a riveted steel frame, converted in 1992 into a 7,100 m² greenhouse with four climates.
SpainView entry →
Estufa Fría (cold greenhouse) of Parque Juan Carlos I, Madrid, Community of Madrid
1996

Estufa Fría (cold greenhouse) of Parque Juan Carlos I

🇪🇸 Madrid, Community of Madrid
An unheated 4,000 m² cold greenhouse whose climate relies on orientation, glazing and angled concrete louvres.
SpainView entry →
Drago Butterfly Park (Mariposario del Drago), Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife (Canary Islands)
1997

Drago Butterfly Park (Mariposario del Drago)

🇪🇸 Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife (Canary Islands)
A glazed tropical garden beside Icod's famous Drago Milenario, where more than 800 exotic butterflies fly freely.
SpainView entry →
1997 · 1999

Minitropicarium of the Real Jardín Botánico Juan Carlos I (Orquidearium and Crassuletum)

🇪🇸 Alcalá de Henares, Community of Madrid
A former research greenhouse, its floor dug out for extra height, houses tropical orchids and part of Spain's largest cactus collection.
SpainView entry →
2010

Exhibition Greenhouse of the Castilla-La Mancha Botanical Garden (invernadero de exposición)

🇪🇸 Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha
In a garden devoted mainly to the flora of Castilla-La Mancha, a 600 m² greenhouse split between the humid and dry tropics, from tree ferns to dragon trees.
SpainView entry →
Benalmádena Butterfly Park (Mariposario de Benalmádena, now Monowa), Benalmádena, Andalusia
2011

Benalmádena Butterfly Park (Mariposario de Benalmádena, now Monowa)

🇪🇸 Benalmádena, Andalusia
A Thai-style butterfly house whose glazed tropical garden of over 900 m² holds up to 2,000 free-flying butterflies.
SpainView entry →
Greenhouse of the Mora i Bravard Cactus and Succulent Botanical Garden, Casarabonela (Málaga), Andalusia
2011 · 1995

Greenhouse of the Mora i Bravard Cactus and Succulent Botanical Garden

🇪🇸 Casarabonela (Málaga), Andalusia
A large glazed greenhouse shelters, in an 8,000 m² garden, about 11,000 cacti and succulents of 2,200 to 2,500 species.
SpainView entry →
Estepona Orchidarium (Orquidario de Estepona), Estepona, Andalusia
2015

Estepona Orchidarium (Orquidario de Estepona)

🇪🇸 Estepona, Andalusia
Three glass domes, the tallest rising 30 m, shelter more than 1,300 orchid species in the old town of Estepona.
SpainView entry →
2017

Desert City (cactus greenhouse and garden)

🇪🇸 San Sebastián de los Reyes, Community of Madrid
A cactus greenhouse roofed with a double layer of ETFE cushions on tensioned cables, shortlisted for the 2018 FAD architecture awards.
SpainView entry →
Greenhouses of La Concepción Botanical-Historical Garden (invernaderos antiguos and estufa caliente), Málaga, Andalusia

Greenhouses of La Concepción Botanical-Historical Garden (invernaderos antiguos and estufa caliente)

🇪🇸 Málaga, Andalusia
Two 19th-century iron greenhouses built to acclimatise warm-climate plants in stages: one boiler-heated, the other warmed by the sun.
SpainView entry →
Greenhouses of the Real Jardín Botánico de Córdoba (American, Central and Orchid houses), Córdoba, Andalusia

Greenhouses of the Real Jardín Botánico de Córdoba (American, Central and Orchid houses)

🇪🇸 Córdoba, Andalusia
In the warm pavilion of the American greenhouses, a walkway enters 3 m above the ground and climbs to a 5 m lookout over tropical fruit trees.
SpainView entry →

Architecture in Spain

1966–1968

Xanadú (La Manzanera)

🇪🇸 Calp, Alicante province
Green cubes with curved roofs that twist as they rise, in a configuration inspired by the nearby Peñón de Ifach.
SpainView entry →
1972–1975

Walden 7

🇪🇸 Sant Just Desvern, Catalonia
Eighteen towers joined into a vertical labyrinth, clay red outside and intense blue in the shared areas.
SpainView entry →
1973

La Muralla Roja

🇪🇸 La Manzanera, Calp (Alicante)
Fifty homes reached through courtyards and stairways, with red-toned façades and blue and violet stairs.
SpainView entry →
Turia Garden (Bofill's stretch), Valencia, Valencian Community
1985

Turia Garden (Bofill's stretch)

🇪🇸 Valencia, Valencian Community
A classical-themed stretch of garden in the old Turia riverbed, organised around a central axis of symmetry and a large pond in front of the Palau de la Música.
SpainView entry →
1991–1997

National Theatre of Catalonia

🇪🇸 Barcelona (Fort Pienc)
A theatre shaped like a Greek temple, with a gabled roof carried on 26 columns 12 metres high, and a foyer conceived as an agora enclosed in glass.
SpainView entry →
Japan Pavilion, Seville Expo 1992, Seville, Andalusia
1992

Japan Pavilion, Seville Expo 1992

🇪🇸 Seville, Andalusia
A wooden parallelepiped 60 m by 40 m, topped by an immense translucent Teflon roof.
SpainView entry →
Caixa Galicia Foundation (Afundación), A Coruña, Galicia
2006

Caixa Galicia Foundation (Afundación)

🇪🇸 A Coruña, Galicia
A tilted paraboloid of glass and marble, like a wave plunging below street level, cut through by an internal street linking Cantón Grande to calle de la Estrella.
SpainView entry →
Torre Espacio (now Torre Emperador Castellana), Madrid (Cuatro Torres Business Area)
2008

Torre Espacio (now Torre Emperador Castellana)

🇪🇸 Madrid (Cuatro Torres Business Area)
A glass tower whose plan shifts from a square at its base to an almond shape at its crown, along a cosine curve.
SpainView entry →

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