Free Dramatized Tour: Madrid of Letters

Join the Free Theatrical Tour Madrid de las Letras and accompany our prestigious playwright Ramón María del Valle-Inclán on a walk through literary Madrid. We will become characters from different eras and learn first-hand the history and evolution of Hispanic culture that has given us unsurpassed writers. A journey through the past, present and future in which we will discover the Spanish Golden Age, the bohemian Madrid and the great generations of writers who have passed through our city.

This Madrid is not real. It is an impossible Madrid. It is a city where all eras mix together; where the house where Lope de Vega lives coexists with the clandestine bars where Hemingway drinks rum and with places where the arts and sciences of the 21st century are spread.

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

🎩Follow in the footsteps of Valle-Inclán…

We will meet in Plaza de Santa Ana, entering the Barrio de las Letras ; we will see ourselves reflected (and deformed) in the famous mirrors of Callejón del Gato , while the “Luces de bohemia” will illuminate our route; we will enter La Fontana de Oro popularized by Pérez Galdós and the house of Lope de Vega; we will celebrate a Nobel Prize ceremony in Plaza de Jacinto Benavente and we will attend the controversy that caused a clubbing duel, with serious consequences for Valle-Inclán, in the Café de la Montaña ; we will pass by the houses of Giacomo Casanova , the most famous seducer of all time, and of Miguel de Cervantes , one of the greatest figures of Spanish literature and author of Don Quixote, one of the best works of universal literature; we will witness a battle of cocks between Quevedo and Góngora with verses by both writers, encouraging our favorite poet; and we will end up directing our steps towards the Ateneo de Madrid and the Teatro Español .

We will immerse ourselves in events and legends, in the city as the setting and inspiration for a great literary work, along a journey that will open the doors to the grotesque and social realism. Alleys, squares, old comedy corrals and cafés for social gatherings will show us a Madrid written in golden letters .