Barrio de las Letras

This guide to Barrio de las Letras in Madrid traces the bitter rivalry between Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega, once friends who turned on each other after Don Quixote made the poorer, older Cervantes suddenly famous. It follows Cervantes through his threadbare final years in this Golden Age quarter of theaters and playwrights, his burial at the convent of the Trinitarias, the order that had once ransomed him from captivity in Algiers, and Lope's own final decades a short walk away. Look down as you walk Calle de las Huertas, where lines from both writers are carved into the paving stones.