Church of Saint Genesius

This guide to the Church of Saint Genesius in Madrid opens in December 1587, when a young Madrid playwright was dragged out of a theater mid-performance and arrested for savage verses he had written about a lover who spurned him. It follows him into exile and a hasty marriage arranged for a sixteen-year-old noblewoman he had taken from the city. Look up at the plain stone tower above you, the one surviving piece of the medieval church that already stood on this spot.