In its beginnings, it was conceived as a whim for the exclusive use of King Ferdinand VII, who exercised the work of a fisherman from his baroque facilities, who knows if imitating that other crippled king from the legend of the Holy Grail, whenever he had the chance of circumventing their obligations in court.
At his side, there were also many great writers - such as Pío Baroja, José de Espronceda or the stern Ramón María del Valle Inclán - who found inspiration, allowing themselves to be seduced voluntarily by its magnetic charm.
We also know that the works for its construction were carried out in 1817, shortly after the end of the black vicissitudes of the War of Independence, when the people of Madrid had not yet recovered from the passage of the Napoleonic gale that had devastated the Iberian Peninsula and still had very present in his memory the terrible events that gave rise to the famous executions of May 2, 1808, so terribly embodied by Francisco de Goya in his paintings.
Its conception and design is attributed to the architect Isidro González Velázquez, who at that time held the notable position of royal architect, although historians tend to attribute the management and maintenance of this eminently romantic small garden, to Bernardino Berogán.
Its situation, moreover, was also privileged, since it is located in the vicinity of the artificial mountain, also ordered to be built by King Fernando VII, on whose top an excellent viewpoint was located, from which, as was told in the old mentideros (gatherings) of the Old Madrid, the sovereign privately spied on his subjects.
Something interesting, on the other hand, must have also seen the prolific writer Javier Sierra, when he located, precisely, here, an important part of the plot of his novel ‘The invisible fire’.
Of which there is no doubt, it is this Casita del Pescador, it is one of the most attractive and fascinating places, of the many that are counted in this magnificent natural lung of Madrid, which is its Retiro Park.
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