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Madrid is an excuse to tell stories, said the great writer Francisco Umbral. And there is a good reason for it, because since the very sixteenth century, when that city was baptized as the capital of present-day Spain, it has been cherished as a source of inspiration for writers, singers and painters. From exalted pioneers, such as Miguel de Cervantes and Saavedra, who walked down its streets and nights, and whose mortal remains rest in some part of the city, to an endless number of Bohemians and poets who wander around today.
"Only your vivid essence nourishes you. You sleep at the edge of the hole and the sword. You are my house, Madrid: my existence how miserable!," wrote the immense Miguel Hernández. Uruguayan Mario Benedetti, on the other hand, felt that "as always, in summer Madrid has become a unanimous calm, but appreciates our permanence." American Ernest Hemingway, who made Madrid the protagonist of his book Fiesta, was aware that the city "overflows with literature, poetry and music on all four sides, so much that she herself is a literary character."
La Villa y Corte, as Madrid is also known, is the starting and ending point for a circle that we travel through architecture, a rich history, a cultural mixture like very few others, and a diversity of passers-by reveals a universe in itself.