Free Theatrical Tour: Literary Madrid

Join the Madrid Literary Free Tour and accompany our renowned playwright Ramón María del Valle-Inclán on a stroll through literary Madrid. We'll become characters from different eras and explore, firsthand, the history and evolution of Hispanic culture that has given us unparalleled writers. A journey through past, present, and future, where we'll discover the Spanish Golden Age, Madrid's bohemian scene, and the great generations of writers who have graced our city.

This Madrid is not real. It is an impossible Madrid. It is a city where all eras blend together; where the house where Lope de Vega lived coexists with the clandestine bars where Hemingway drank rum and with venues for the dissemination of 21st-century arts and sciences.

It is the past, present, and future of Madrid, conceivable only through the grotesque and the distortion of concave and convex mirrors. This world, poised between reality and dream, was created by Ramón María del Valle-Inclán. As characters within it, we will explore it hand in hand with its author. Thus, both he and we ourselves will discover if his existence (and our own) has meaning, at least through literature.

🎩Follow in the footsteps of Valle-Inclán…

We'll meet in front of the Teatro Español in Plaza de Santa Ana, in the heart of the Literary Quarter. We'll see our reflections (and distorted ones) in the mirrors of Callejón del Gato , while the 'Bohemian Lights' illuminate our path.

We'll talk about love, roguery, and ponder what Spain is in the face of the Fontana de Oro, popularized by Benito Pérez Galdós . Valle-Inclán will reveal the consequences of the duel at the Café de la Montaña. We'll pay tribute to the memory of women like María de Zayas and Emilia Pardo Bazán . We'll walk down Calle Huertas toward the gossip hub of actors and comedians. We'll ask if Lope de Vega will allow us into his house and listen to Quevedo and Góngora argue. We'll even have time for a certain Miguel de Cervantes to teach us the true meaning of Don Quixote.

And as if that weren't enough, events, legends, anecdotes , and a neighborhood as the setting for a grand play unfold along a route that will open the doors to the grotesque and social realism. Alleyways, small squares, old open-air theaters, and cafés will reveal a Madrid written in golden letters.