Corrala Buildings and Corral Theaters in Madrid: Dramatic History and Typology

Abstract

Corralas are a type of residential building characteristic of Madrid whose origins go back to the sixteenth century. These buildings of dwellings arranged around a courtyard evolved out of many prior architectural models, such as Muslim houses or the Roman domus. This paper considers the relationship between corralas and a kindred architectural type: corral theaters. The latter, regarded as the first public theaters in Spain, were in the Spanish Golden Age closely linked, both formally and programmatically, to corralas. Through an analysis of archive documents, we show how theatrical and domestic activities have coexisted in these two types of locale and how their cultural legacy subsists today.