Teatro de la Comedia

The facade you could easily walk straight past belongs to the Teatro de la Comedia, which opened in 1875, burned down forty years later, was rebuilt in 1915, and then disappeared behind the scaffolding of a renovation for another thirteen years, until it was finally finished in October 2015.

Since 1986 this has been the home of the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico, the company that performs the repertoire of the Spanish Golden Age, and so the reopening was marked with Calderón's El alcalde de Zalamea, for a hall of six hundred and thirty seats. The plays staged here were written in the very streets you are about to walk into.

The posters beside the entrance tell you what is on this month, and there is a good chance you will recognise one of the names further along your route.

We head back to the Plaza de Santa Ana and take the Calle del Prado east, as far as number 21.