Gardens With History

Spain's gardens are rarely just gardens. They are the accumulated decisions of monarchs, artists, botanists, and visionaries, each leaving something of themselves in the soil.

Fronted by architect Arturo Franco, this documentary series travels across the Iberian Peninsula and the archipelagos to explore the most significant gardens in Spanish heritage. From the royal grounds of Aranjuez and La Granja de San Ildefonso to the sculpted landscape of Chillida Leku and the ancient terraces of the Alhambra, each episode takes a specific site as its subject, examining the history, botany, and human stories embedded within it.

Franco is a thoughtful and knowledgeable guide. Alongside garden historian Mónica Luengo Añon, he traces the lives of the figures who shaped these spaces, and the native and exotic plant species that took root within them. Public and private, formal and wild, the gardens span centuries of stylistic influence and geographical contrast.

Directed by Sonia Tercero and produced by RTVE and Time Zone Producciones, the series was recognised with an Iris Award from the Academy of Sciences and Arts Television, cited for its aesthetic care and its commitment to landscape heritage.

A considered portrait of a country, seen from the ground up.