Compared to what happens in other historic cities, where it is possible to walk through neighborhoods that preserve medieval houses, riding a Madrid It is almost exceptional to find this type of house due to the numerous urban reforms carried out throughout history.
However, when in your trip to Madrid visit the historic center of the city, you can find some medieval house, although it will not be easy for you to identify them.
In the Plaza de la Villa, can you see her House and Tower of the Lujanes, of the 15th century, and Cisneros House, from the 16th century, but these are medieval palatial buildings.
To see an example of what the popular houses were like in medieval Madrid, a good place is in the so-called Neighborhood of the letters, along the streets that extend to the east of the Plaza de Santa Ana. And this despite the fact that the vast majority of medieval houses, such as houses where Cervantes lived, were replaced by new buildings at the end of the 19th century.
In this area, which in medieval times was outside the limits of the old 12th century wall of Madrid, numerous medieval houses emerged. These houses are configured with a façade of exposed brick and granite in the lower part of it.
An example of these medieval houses You have it on Lope de Vega Street 18, next to the Convent of the Trinitarians, which was built in 1606. This house in the middle Neighborhood of the letters shows you the characteristic façade of the medieval houses of Madrid.
Likewise, it is an example of a house of malice, which is what the houses that were built were called after the arrival of the Court to Madrid, in 1561, when it became the capital of the Kingdom.
These houses of malice They tried to avoid the room regalia, rule that obliged the inhabitants of the city where the Court was based to give up part of the house to house the royal entourage, officials and military personnel. In order to avoid this “tax”, houses were built that only showed an upper floor, and tried to hide the availability of additional spaces, such as an attic.
As a consequence of the room regalia, those houses of medieval Madrid Those who had more than one upper floor had to give up the additional space to accommodate the Kingdom's officials. As the Court finally no longer moved from Madrid, the city's inhabitants had to live with this “tax” until the 19th century, when it finally disappeared.
But the best example of medieval house in Madrid You have it just a few meters away, at number 11 on the nearby Cervantes Street, where the House Museum of Lope de Vega, which you can also visit.
With a façade with similar characteristics, at the time that Lope de Vega lived in this house it fulfilled the aforementioned room regalia. For example, he had as a guest for nine months the Captain Alonso de Contreras, from whom the writer Pérez Reverte was inspired for his famous character in the novels of the Captain Alatriste , whose room you can see recreated during the tour.
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