Places linked to a character to visit Spain

Since 2014, Francisco de Zurbarán's home has reopened, on the occasion of the 350 th anniversary of his death, after a great renovation of the places that allowed the spaces to be redistributed (rooms, rooms…) to construct a logical path and to equip him with leading-edge technological tools, transporting the visitor to the rural era and mystic lived by the painter and transmitted by his works. Audiovisual materials, videos and games of light and music, at the entrance, accompany the visit, an extremely didactic circuit on the author and his works even if it contains no original paintings. The first hall, Zurbarán, presents the personality of the painter, as reflected in his works and in the objects of his daily life (cups, plates, bodegones…), with a space devoted to his son Juan, unknown to the greatest number but who worked alongside his father and died very young. The second hall, Estrémadure, traces its monastic work since its return from Seville and the installation of its workshop in Llerena. Beginning with paintings like his famous Christ on the Cross (Cristo in la Cruz) of 1627, this stage will be decisive for its future since this type of painting will bring him numerous requests for work for different religious orders and will be the beginning of a huge notoriety. The third hall, Seville, reports on the great number of works devoted to the theme of the Virgin Mary, a means for Zurbarán, to use painting as a tool for spreading the Seville fervor of his time, in favor of this theme. Finally, the Pasillo de las Santas chamber presents, in small format, the countless saints painted by Zurbarán and the concern of the painter that they are identified in the future as bearers of his brand.

The great playwright Miguel de Cervantes was born on the 3rd of April 1547 in this house on the historic Calle Mayor. The visit retraces the author's childhood and the family's daily life between the 16th and 18th centuries. We can see a sewing room, the kitchen, the dining room, the boudoir, a surgeon's office (a profession practised by Cervantes' father), as well as lounges and bedrooms. The house also has an important bibliographic collection and numerous pieces of furniture and ceramics from the period. An interesting visit.

It was therefore in this dwelling that Pablo Picasso was born on the night of 25 October 1881. Today converted to Picasso Foundation, she studied her life and her work. Three rooms show some examples of the different ways of expression of the painter (graphic works, ceramics, illustrated books). Some temporary exhibitions will also seduce visitors, a good complement to the Picasso museum.

A plaque at number 16 of this street tells us the house where Unamuno, the illustrious universal thinker, poet, novelist and teacher, was born on September 29, 1864. A few metres is the place dedicated to it.