Places in Spain that appear in literature

Literary places of Spain

Our literature is nourished not only by great stories, but also by many places that praised a certain town, city or Spanish enclave immortalized by letters. From La Mancha del Quijote to that lost town where Juan Ramón Jiménez walked with a donkey, we are going to travel through these following places in Spain that appear in the literature.

Pamplona: Fiesta, by Ernest Hemingway

Pamplona Ernest Hemingway

Photography: Graeme Churchard

In the 20s, the international scene continued to see Spain as a poor and defeatist country compared to other nations on the old continent. However, the First World War would not only bring Ernest Hemingway to Europe, it would make him one of the great discoverers of its geography. For example, a city of Pamplona in whose Sanfermines the author of The Old Man and the Sea immersed himself to give life to his first novel, Seafood, published in 1926. After its release, the work not only became a success but also exported to the world the image of a festive and optimistic Spain.

Moguer: Platero y yo, by Juan Ramón Jiménez

Moguer Platero and I

After the death of his father, Juan Ramón Jiménez returned to his hometown of Huelva, Moguer, to assist a ruined family. A situation that was increased by the image of a dilapidated birthplace, so far from the home where the author lived as a child. This is how Jiménez began to evoke all those memories through a literary vehicle such as the Platero donkey, an animal he discovered the nuances of that small Andalusian town: the white butterflies that fluttered at night, the celebration of Corpus Christi, the presence of the gypsies in a square full of joy and entertainment.

Would you like to read Platero and me?

Campo de Criptana: Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes

Campo de Criptana Don Quixote

In 2005, on the occasion of the commemoration of the fourth centenary of Don Quijote de la Mancha, was declared in Spain the first route based on the work of Miguel Cervantes, becoming a success. More than 2500 kilometers spread over 148 municipalities where the visitor could start from Toledo to end up in Sigüenza, passing through the iconic El Toboso or the most "quixotic" image: the ten mills of Campo de Criptana that today has become a symbol of a community of La Mancha where once there were giants attacked by the most famous nobleman of letters.

Carabanchel Alto: Manolito Gafotas, by Elvira Lindo

Carabanchel Alto Manolito Gafotas

Madrilenians may have known it, but possibly many Spaniards located the Carabanchel Alto neighborhood after reading Manolito Gafotas. Carabanchel, which encompasses more than 240 thousand inhabitants, became the best showcase of that working-class Spain seen through a plump boy who lived with his parents, his grandfather Nicolás and his brother, El Imbécil. The most carefree setting of a Literary Madrid that goes from the Chocolatería San Ginés in which Valle-Inclán set the Bohemian Lights or a Barrio de las Letras turned into the literary epicenter of the capital and a usual place for authors such as Góngora, Cervante or Quevedo.

Baztán Valley: The invisible guardian, by Dolores Redondo

Elizondo The invisible guardian

Become one of the great successes of Spanish literature in recent years, the Baztán trilogy by Dolores Redondo (formed by The Invisible Guardian, The Legacy in the Bones and Offering to the Storm) delved into the mysteries of a Navarrese valley where various murders are being investigated by Inspector Amaia Salazar, who to solve the case must return to her hometown, Elizondo, from which he always wanted to flee. Present in the three titles of the saga, the Baztán Valley its popularity increased after the publication of the books, attracting faithful of the work in search of the cemeteries, forests and rivers that cemented such an intense plot.

La Albufera: Reeds and Mud, by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

Albufera Reeds and mud

At the beginning of the XNUMXth century, naturalism found in Blasco Ibáñez one of its best representatives, especially thanks to works such as Canes and clay, the most famous of the Valencian author. A novel in which the setting counted as one more character thanks to its importance in the plot of the Paloma family, a clan of poor farmers who lived in the town of El Palmar, located in the middle of the largest freshwater lake in Spain, 10 kilometers south of Valencia. Throughout the pages, especially in its first section, the Albufera is presented to the reader as a marginal microcosm, where the marshes, rice fields and secret beaches configure a labyrinth on which one of the best Spanish novels of the XNUMXth century.

The Orchard of Calisto and Melibea: La Celestina, by Fernando de Rojas

Salamanca La Celestina

Salamanca at the end of the XNUMXth century it became the setting for one of the great works of our literature: La Celestina, also known as the Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea, the two protagonists united by a prostitute and whose great part of their love story took place in an orchard chosen by the author, Fernando de Rojas. An urban lung that was reopened in 1981 under the name of Huerto de Calisto y Melibea, located next to the wall that crosses the river Tormes, a name that reminds us of the first passages of the Lazarillo de tormes set in the Salamanca capital before jumping to Toledo, the main city where the story took place.

Church of Santa María del Mar: The Cathedral of the Sea, by Ildefonso Falcones

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar

Published in 2006 and turned into a multi-sales novel within a few months, The cathedral of the sea narrated the construction of the Church of Santa María del Mar in the humble fishermen's neighborhood of La Ribera where Arnau lived, a young man through whom we learned the secrets of medieval Barcelona. Currently, this building whose construction began in 1329 has become one of the great literary icons of a Condal City adored by authors such as Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Carmen Laforet or Juan Marsé.


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