Barrio de las Letras

The friars once grew crops here, which is why it was called Huertas. Then the Cortes arrived and the name stuck. It was the quarter of the Muses, the quarter of Parnassus and, more recently, Las Letras, after its long-standing calling to tell stories. Much of Madrid’s voice came out of here, from the Golden Age to the Silver Age. Writers, printers and actors gathered here. Its old playhouses gave way to the Teatro Español and the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico. The metal letters were set into the pavement. The streets Francos, Cantarranas and Travesía del Niño changed their names to Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Quevedo. The history of this quarter can be read on green leaves and white pages: in the veins of its streets and in their names, where the devotion to the saints, a lion and an aubergine live together in a meadow of esparto grass.