Antonio Machado House Museum

Antonio Machado lived in this boarding house during his years as a teacher in Segovia. The house museum, run by Segovia Tourism, shows his room and explains the poet's life in the city. It is at calle de los Desamparados, 5, in the upper city, five minutes from the Plaza Mayor.

The story of the house

Machado arrived in Segovia on 25 November 1919 to take up the chair of French at the Instituto General y Técnico. Within a few days he moved into the boarding house run by Luisa Torrego, and he kept his room here until 1932. In Segovia he founded, with other writers and artists, the Universidad Popular, which after the poet's death bought the house and opened a first simple museum. Later it was acquired by the Royal Academy of History and Art of San Quirce, which maintains it as a permanent memorial. It is declared an Asset of Cultural Interest.

What you see

The house is kept modest and almost bare, with period furniture. The poet's room remains intact. On the walls hang portraits of him based on photographs, oil paintings, drawings and posters by Rafael Peñuelas, Jesús Unturbe, Álvaro Delgado and Pablo Picasso, alongside images of Leonor and Guiomar and other mementos from his years in the city. In the small garden, among rose bushes and ivy, there is a copy of the bust Emiliano Barral made of him in 1920 and a ceramic panel by Julián López Parras.

Hours and price

Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 14:00 and from 16:00 to 18:00; Sundays from 10:00 to 14:30. Last entry is a quarter of an hour before closing, and on public holidays the hours may change. Guided tour every day at 10:00, in Spanish only.

General admission costs €4 with an audioguide and €5 with a guided tour; reduced (students up to 25, over-65s and others), €3 and €4. Under-12s, teachers, people with a disability of at least 33% and official guides enter free, although the audioguide or the guide is paid separately. On non-holiday Wednesdays admission is free, not including the audioguide. The guided tour is bought online on the Segovia Tourism ticket website. Phone: 921 460 377; email, [email protected]. If you cannot go, the website offers a virtual tour.

Nearby

The house is close to Plaza de San Esteban. From here you go down in a few minutes to the cathedral and the Plaza Mayor, and on towards the Alcázar.