A method and apparatus for transmitting a downlink reference signal in a wireless communication system supporting multiple antennas is disclosed. A method for transmitting Channel State Information-Reference Signals (CSI-RSs) for eight or less antenna ports includes selecting one of a plurality of CSI-RS Resource Element (RE) groups defined on a data region of a downlink subframe and mapping CSI-RSs for the eight or less antenna ports to the selected CSI-RS RE group, and transmitting the downlink subframe in which the CSI-RSs for the eight or less antenna ports are mapped. The plurality of CSI-RS RE groups is defined such that a transmission diversity RE pair for data transmitted on the downlink subframe is not broken.