Plaza de las Letras

Barrio de las Letras·Cortes

An honorific name, taken from the popular name of the surrounding district⁠—⁠officially Cortes, known as the Barrio de las Letras (Literary Quarter)⁠—⁠after the Golden Age writers who lived, printed and were buried in these streets.

The name is younger than it seems. For centuries this area was the Huertas district, named for the fields that supplied the town with vegetables. What turned it into the Literary Quarter was no decree, but the sheer gathering of people who wrote: authors, printers, playhouses and gossip corners of the 16th and 17th centuries. The surrounding streets took on the surnames of that neighborhood⁠—⁠Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Quevedo, Moratín⁠—⁠until the square ended up naming literature itself. The printworks where Don Quixote was set stood here, and a few steps away Cervantes’s remains rest behind the walls of the Trinitarias.

Its names

  • Solar sin denominación pública (Convento de Padres Agonizantes)h. 1720 – h. 1840
  • Solar sin denominación pública (Serrerías Belgas)h. 1840 – h. 1900
  • Solar sin denominación pública (subestación eléctrica de Unión Fenosa)principios 20th century – 2004
  • Plaza de las Letras2007
Sources (8)

Crossings