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Museo del Prado, located at Calle de Ruiz de Alarcón, 23, is one of the most important museums in the world and is the most visited tourist attraction in Madrid. The museum officially opened on 19 November 1819 in a building first created in 1786. The building has undergone several major renovations in 1853, 1882, 1885, 1914 to 1921, 1943 to 1946, 1954-1956 and 2001 to 2007. It houses a number of important works of Spanish artists, giving a chronology the greats in Spanish art history. An oil painting of Carolina Coronado hangs in Sala A. The portrait was done by Federico de Madrazo in 1855. The collection also contains the work of Marisa Roesset Velasco. In 2018, the museum appeared in an advertisement for Orgullo 2018 that featured a pair of lesbian grandmothers reminiscing on how much Madrid has changed for lesbians in the past 40 years.
Parque el Retiro is one of the largest parks in Madrid. In the 1600s and until the early 1800s, it was home to Palacio Buen Retiro. Several Spanish monarchs called it home and it was the seat of the Spanish court. It was here that members of the Court of Felipe IV smeared the Queen of Sweden. It is also where Isabel de Borbón-Parma was born on 31 December 1741. Isabel would go on to write many love letters to the sister of her husband. Parts of the existing palace that are visible today include the Salón de Baile, now known as the Casón del Buen Retiro. This was originally a ballroom. It also includes the Salón de Reinos, which used to be royal reception room. Elena Fortún would, like many other mothers of the period, take her children, Luis born in 1908 and Manuel born in 1909, to sunbath at El Retiro during the 1910s. It was also here that, while watching her children, Fortún began to write her children’s stories. In 1931, the Lyceum Club Feminino ran a conference in María Martínez Sierra’s honor in El Retiro, collecting 600 pesetas that the author gave to unemployed workers in the city. The focus of the conference, named Literad, was on women’s rights.
Ateneo de Madrid, located at Paseo del Prado, 21, was an important cultural venue in Madrid during the early part of the 20th century, especially for members of the generación del 98, generación del 14 and the generación del 27. The Ateneo was founded in 1820. By the 1880s, events organized by the Ateneo were being attended a large number of important women of the day including María Luisa Guerra, María Luisa Chevalier, Isabel Echevarría de Aguirre and Matilde Torregrosa. The ability for women to attend events made it an important gathering place in the cultural lives of women from the 1880s onwards. Members of the Círculo Sáfico de Madrid would use it to hold their own meetings, to network and to give speeches. Among those attending events in the 1920s included Victorina Durán and Rosa Chacel. On 13 March 2017, the Ateno de Madrid hosted a tribute to Gloria Fuertes in celebration of the centenary of her birth. The Consejo de las Mujeres del Municipio de Madrid held an event at the Ateneo de Madrid on 26 December 2020 where they presented their proposed Law on the Equality of Diverse Families. Among those leading the group is CRECUL president Elena de León Criado.
Places to stay
Hotel Mandarín Oriental Ritz, located at Plaza de la Lealtad, 5, is a five-star hotel. Following a successful performance by Margarita Xirgu in Saint Joan at Teatro Eslava in 1926, a tribute was paid to the actress at the hotel. It was here that she would hear about a promising poet, Federico García Lorca, for the first time. This event initiated a lifelong friendship between the two.
España Sáfica 