Cairasco Square – Literary Cabinet – Hotel Madrid

Cairasco Square exudes history and atmosphere. At its center stands a stone monument with the bust of Bartolomé Cairasco de Figueroa, the “father” of Canarian literature. Surrounding it are the Gabinete Literario (Literary Society), one of the city’s most beautiful and best-preserved historic buildings, and the iconic Hotel Madrid, which has been hosting visitors from all over the world—some of them well-known figures—for over a century, and serving as a meeting place for lively discussions on its terrace.

The Gabinete Literario building, a modernist structure with neoclassical elements, was the city’s first theater, the Teatro Cairasco. In 1844, the Gabinete Literario society was founded, occupying this space and transforming it at the end of the 19th century. Inside, the main staircase leading to the first floor and the former ballroom, the Salón Dorado (Golden Hall), is particularly noteworthy. On this same floor, the Meifrén Room displays a collection of oil paintings by the Catalan painter Eliseo Meifrén Roig.

The facilities and surrounding area of ​​the Literary Cabinet have been used as a film set for prominent national and international productions. The Hotel Madrid also has a connection to cinema, having opened as a café in 1910: Gregory Peck and the film crew of Moby Dick stopped here for a drink; Silvana Pampanini stayed at the hotel when she starred in Tirma.

Among others, Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard were at the Literary Cabinet during the filming of Allied. Shirley MacLaine and Jessica Lange in Like Queens; and more recently, Jennifer Lopez during the filming of The Mother.

Right across from the Hotel Madrid is the Alameda de Colón, and surrounding it are the CICCA cultural center on one side and the Church of San Francisco and the remains of the old Franciscan convent on the other.