Studying in Spain – Journal 11: Casa Museo Lope de Vega
Lope de Vega was a Spanish poet, novelist and playwright during the Spanish Golden Age. He wrote over 3000 poems, 3 novels, 4 novellas and 500 plays in his life, and was considered as one of the most “productive” writers in Spanish history. The importance of Lope de Vega to Spanish literature is to many people comparable to that of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quijote.
The Lope de Vega Museum, or “Casa Museo Lope de Vega” in Spanish, was Lope de Vega’s house for 25 years until his death in the year 1635. After his death, the house has had a number of owners who renovated the house more than once, and the original structure of the building is actually no longer visible. But the museum still has a few items that belonged to the writer when he was alive.
The museum currently only allows guided tours with prior booking, and the whole tour would take approximately 30 minutes, and even without prior booking, visiting the garden is still allowed. The whole tour is completely free and can be in Spanish, English, Italian or French. Booking the tour can be done through telephone or email, but guides in languages other than Spanish may not be available everyday, so it is best to check for their availability beforehand.
The Lope de Vega Museum is open from 10:00 to 18:00 on Tuesday to Sunday, but the last tour everyday starts at 17:00. The closest metro stations to the museum are Antón Martín and Sevilla. Antón Martín is on metro station line 1 and Sevilla is on line 2.
Booking a tour for a maximum of 15 people can be done through email or telephone.
Email: casamuseolopedevega@madrid.org
Telephone: +34 914 299 216
My visit to Lope de Vega Museum
I first learned about the name Lope de Vega in Spanish fiction series “Ministerio del Tiempo”. When I found out that Madrid had a museum based on the famous writer’s life, I decided to pay it a visit.
The museum isn’t like traditional museums as they only allow group tours and require booking, but the museum itself is definitely worth the trouble to visit. Like many Spanish museums, taking photos is allowed but flashlights aren’t.
They ask you to leave your bags in their closet, which sadly is without a lock, but there are people to watch over your belongings for you. I would still recommend that people bring their more valuable belongings with them during the tour.
The guided tour that I participated in was in Spanish, and it was led by an Italian woman. My Spanish isn’t that good so I could only understand about 50 percent of what she was talking about, so I would recommend people to book a tour in English if they aren’t fully fluent in Spanish.
It was interesting to see the house of a writer 5 centuries ago, the furniture and decorations were just so different. It was like walking through the movie set of a historical film and taking a good look at it. I especially like the writer’s desk, as it was just like the way I imagined a famous writer’s desk would be.
So even though arranging a booking to visit the museum seems a bit troublesome, I would still recommend it to people who are interested in Spanish literature.
