Galdós' Madrid
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AN ILLUSTRATED CULTURAL MAP GALDÓS' MADRID Gonzalo Izquierdo Gonzalo Mapa ilustrado por por ilustrado Mapa esmadrid.com GALDÓS’ MADRID PLACES OF INTEREST MUSEUMS 5 Scientific and Literary Athenaeum 18 Pozas Mansion History Museum Calle del Prado, 21 - METRO: Antón Martín Calle de la Princesa 33 - METRO: Ventura Rodríguez Calle de Fuencarral, 78 - METRO: Tribunal TEL: (+34) 91 701 18 63 INFO: Tues-Sun 10:00-20:00 h When Mariano José de Larra became its first The mansion where Emilia Pardo Bazán lived was member on 4 January 1836, the Ateneo de Ma- located at number 33 in Calle Princesa. In ad- The History Museum offers a complete overview drid emerged as a meeting place for politicians, dition to being one of the 19th century’s most of Madrid from the Spanish Golden Age to the writers and philosophers. For decades a safe ha- important novelists, thanks to works like The early 20th century. Particularly noteworthy is ven for liberal ideas, in the 19th century it was House of Ulloa (Pazos de Ulloa), she was also an the scale model of Madrid by León Gil de Pala- given the nickname of “Little Holland”. Galdós intellectual committed to women’s rights. Their cio which offers a detailed view of what the city met Leopoldo Alas Clarín, another of Spanish correspondence shows that their relationship looked like between 1828 and 1830, just dec- Naturalism’s great narrators, when the institution was one of Galdós’ longest. He never married, ades before it was chronicled by Galdós. «It’s a chilly January in 1919. Galdós, who was headquartered at no. 32 in Calle Montera. and she would affectionately call him “miquiño has gone blind and has trouble walking mío” (“my little boy”). and moving around, feels several arms Museum of Romanticism straining around him. The next thing he 6 Palacio de las Cortes Calle de San Mateo, 13 - METRO: Tribunal knows, he’s being lifted straight up and Plaza de las Cortes, s/n - METRO: Banco de España 19 Real Academia Española TEL: (+34) 91 448 01 63 / 91 448 10 45 INFO: Winter (Tues-Sat 9:30-18:30 h; Sun 10:00-15:00 h) taken to a recently unveiled monument: Calle de Felipe IV, 4 - METRO: Banco de España Summer (Tues-Sat 9:30-20:30 h; Sun 10:00-15:00 h) it’s a statue of him sculpted by Victorio Other than in his youth, Benito Pérez Galdós Macho, which his friends have erect- showed little enthusiasm for politics, but that In 1897, Benito Pérez Galdós occupied the “N” Paintings by Goya, Madrazo and the Bécquer ed with great affection in El Retiro Park. did not stop him from being elected twice to seat at the Royal Spanish Academy. Although it brothers, as well as furniture, jewellery and the Nobody wanted to be outdone: the City parliament. First in 1886, as a member of the was founded in 1713, the current building was gun used by Larra to commit suicide capture Liberal Party (Partido Liberal) at the initiative constructed in the late 19th century, on land the essence of 19th Madrid, which provided the Council contributed three thousand pe- of his friend Sagasta, and again in 1910, as ceded by Alfonso XII for that purpose. backdrop to many of Benito Pérez Galdós’ novels. setas; the Academy, one thousand; and leader of the Republican–Socialist Conjunction peers such as Margarita Xirgu and the (Conjunción Republicano-Socialista), which re- 13 El Debate Quintero brothers, twenty-five pesetas 1 Guesthouse on Calle de las Fuentes ceived just over 10 percent of the vote. During Calle de Fomento, 15 - METRO: Plaza de España 20 Monument to Galdós 25 Lázaro Galdiano Museum each. When he perceives the presence of Calle de las Fuentes, 3 - METRO: Ópera both terms he regularly attended Palacio de las El Retiro Park (Paseo de Uruguay, 3) Calle de Serrano, 122 the cold stone next to him, the arms of his Cortes, Spain’s House of Parliament, located in Number 15 in Calle Fomento was the location METRO: Atocha Renfe METRO: Rubén Darío, Gregorio Marañón TEL: (+34) 91 561 60 84 people strain even more to hold him up as As was customary among students from other Carrera de San Jerónimo. of the editorial office of El Debate, a newspaper Blind and crippled, in 1919 the writer attended INFO: Tues-Sat 10:00-16:30 h. Sun 10:00-15:00 h he uses his right hand to feel the features parts of Spain, during his first months in Madrid that Galdós ran between 1871 and 1873. the unveiling of a monument funded by dona- of his face. He can make out an aquiline –from 1862 to 1863– Galdós lived in a modest 9 Royal Palace tions that was erected in his honour in El Reti- In addition to being an exceptional collector, guesthouse at number 3 in Calle de las Fuentes. 7 Teatro de la Comedia ro Park. Created by sculptor Victorio Macho, it José Lázaro Galdiano was the editor of La Es- nose, a bulky moustache –from another Calle de Bailén, s/n - METRO: Ópera It was the base from which he discovered many of Calle del Príncipe, 14 - METRO: Sol TEL: (+34) 91 454 88 00 14 Church of San Sebastián is carved in white stone and shows the novelist paña Moderna, which published texts by Pardo time perhaps– and eyes as lifeless as his, INFO: Summer (Mon-Sun 10:00-20:00 h) the settings that would later appear in his novels. Winter (Mon-Sun 10:00-18:00 h) Calle de Atocha, 39 - METRO: Antón Martín sitting in an armchair. Bazán, Unamuno, Galdós, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy although in this case it’s an effect sculpt- Now home to La Compañía Nacional de Teatro Free for EU & South American citizens: Summer (Mon-Thur and Flaubert in the late 19th century, sometimes ed into the stone. From his own eyes, a Clásico, Spain’s classical theatre company, this 18:00-20:00) Winter (Mon-Thur 16:00-18:00) At the beginning of Compassion, Galdós offers translated for the first time into Spanish. Parque tear falls, arousing thunderous applause 2 Universidad Central theatre staged the premiere of Reality (La Real- In The Spendthrifts (La de Bringas), Galdós tells a description of the Church of San Sebastián 21 Alberto Aguilera’s House Florido, the mansion where he lived in Calle Ser- from the onlookers. One year later, thirty Calle de San Bernardo, 49 - METRO: Noviciado idad) on 15 March 1892, starring the great ac- the story of the financial troubles that befall a and its surroundings: the florist’s behind it, Tepa Calle de Alberto Aguilera, 70 - METRO: Argüelles rano, was a focal point of literary life in Madrid thousand people will accompany his cof- tress María Guerrero. It was the first of Galdós fashion addict married to a court official who Palace and Plaza del Ángel. This parish church during the period. fin to La Almudena Cemetery, where he Galdós came to Madrid from Las Palmas de Gran works to be performed on stage, despite the lives on the upper floor of the Royal Palace. In the in Madrid’s Barrio de las Letras (Literary Quar- In Galdós’ time, the street was called Paseo de remains buried to this day. Canaria to study law at the faculty in El Caserón great vocation as a playwright that had distin- novel the writer describes life inside the palace, ter) is also the burial place of playwright Lope Areneros, and he lived at number 46 from 1896 de San Bernardo, which now holds the audito- guished him from an early age. constructed in the 18th century by Italian archi- de Vega and architects Ventura Rodríguez and to 1912. It was in that house that he wrote his National Library Museum rium of the Complutense University (UCM) and tects Juvarra and Sacchetti. Juan de Villanueva. masterpiece Compassion, in 1897. Paseo de Recoletos, 20 - METRO: Colón A century has passed since then, and the Marqués de Valdecilla Historical Library (no. TEL: (+34) 91 516 89 67 one may wonder why his friends payed INFO: Mon-Sat 10:00-20:00 h 3 in Calle de Noviciado). Years later, in Memoirs 8 Teatro Español Sun & hols 10:00-14:00 h for and erected a statue in his hon- of a Forgetful Man (Memorias de un desmemo- Plaza de Santa Ana. Calle del Príncipe, 25 - METRO: Sevilla 10 Plaza Mayor 15 Las Cambroneras and las Injurias 22 Galdós’ Last Residence our. Why did half of Madrid head to the riado), he admitted that he attended class very Plaza Mayor (the house at no. 11 Cava de San Miguel) METRO: Pirámides Calle de Hilarión Eslava, 7 - METRO: Argüelles The Spanish National Library is housed in a mag- streets to bid him farewell? The answer infrequently, although it was there that he met On 30 January 1901, Teatro Español hosted the METRO: Sol nificent building at the end of Paseo de Recole- is simple: because Galdós had been part Francisco Giner de los Ríos, the man who found- premiere of Electra, a play that sparked an entire Fortunata, the lower-class woman who seduc- Galdós was the first writer to describe what life The writer died in his home at no. 7 Calle Hilarión tos that was commissioned by Queen Isabella II. of their world. He had engaged with the ed the Free Educational Institution (ILE). anticlerical movement in Spain that the writer es Juanito Santa Cruz in Fortunata and Jacinta, was like in the suburbs that were growing up Eslava, in a building that’s no longer standing.