Calle de Jovellanos

A short street behind the Congress of Deputies, dedicated to Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, a Spanish Enlightenment figure who wrote on land reform, public education and also on theater. He spent his last years imprisoned in Bellver Castle, in Mallorca. Number 4 supplied the irony: the Teatro de la Zarzuela opened there in 1856. The street of the man who theorized about public entertainment ended up marked by one.

The Teatro de la Zarzuela, inaugurated on 10 October 1856 at number 4 of this street to mark the birthday of Isabella II, was promoted by the composers Barbieri and Gaztambide when the street had only recently been opened; the street already bore the name of Jovellanos before the theater turned it into a destination.