Back on the Plaza de Santa Ana

Here we come full circle, back on the square where the walk began.

What remains of this company is spread out unevenly. Lope got a museum and a street, Cervantes a street and a grave that stayed lost for four centuries, Quevedo a street name, and Góngora a house he was forced to leave. The neighbourhood carries their names and knows it perfectly well.

On the north side of this square the Calle de la Cruz begins, and in a few minutes it brings you to the Plaza Mayor. That is where the Inquisition read out its sentences, and where our walk past the icons of Madrid passes through, on to the Royal Palace that rose from a Christmas fire and the Gran Vía that made fourteen streets disappear.

From this square you can reach the Puerta del Sol in five minutes, and the Sevilla and Antón Martín metro stops are both only a few minutes away. The terraces around the square are the obvious place to wind things down, and the smaller bars on the Calle de la Cruz and the Calle Núñez de Arce are usually quieter.