Conde Duque

It belongs to the neighborhood of Universidad, but people know it by its barracks: that of the Conde Duque, the enormous barracks of the Guardias de Corps that Philip V had built and that bears the title of the favorite of Philip IV, the Count-Duke of Olivares. It was an area of convents and troops. Here stood the Comendadoras and the Mostenses, the Seminario de Nobles and the Liria palace of the Albas. Amid so many religious and military walls, little streets grew up bearing the names of an orchard: the lemon, the poplar, the apple. Today, where the soldiers slept, paintings are hung and films are screened: the old barracks is a cultural center. You arrive by Amaniel, rest between the pious sisters and the Christ, and leave with a book under your arm. The barracks changed uniforms without moving from its place.