Casa Museo Lope de Vega

This spacious room, with two windows, was witness to the daily scene of the main family meal. Once the table was set, the father, Lope, had to be notified, to be convinced to leave his desk a begin to eat. Apparently, it was his son Carlos Félix who could best convince him that to set aside the pen.

"Llamábanme a comer; tal vez decía
que me dejasen, con algún despecho (...)
Pero de flores y de perlas hecho,
Entraba Carlos a llamarme y daba
Luz a mis ojos, brazos a mi pecho.
Tal vez que de la mano me llevaba,
me tiraba del alma y a la mesa
al lado de su madre me sentaba"

Upon studying Lope's work, we could say that he did not have a very refined palate, although apparently, he was tempted by sweets, "que es lo que acá no sabemos",
he wrote to a friend, surely referring to his cook Lorenza Sánchez's lack of talent with desserts
In addition to the table, chair and cupboard, the room today houses some still life paintings (on deposit from the Prado Museum) and two traditional oil lamps.

 The original location of the kitchen in the house of Lope de Vega has never been known, although it was probably on the ground floor and not on the first floor, where it is located now. The uses during the time period and logic point more to the ground floor, which had easier access to the garden and well.

After a visit to the house, Azorín could not resist the temptation to underline certain incoherencies in the location of the kitchen, aided by the comments of two women from Bétara who, along with him, knew the building, and asked how Lope could find the peace and quite necessary to write with the banging of pots and pans right next to him.

A low, open hearth was put in the reconstruction of this room and kitchen utensils of the time were added. A storage cupboard was also added, a plate shelf with pieces from the 17th century, a clay jar for oil and several pieces of basic pottery.

 Feliciana, Lope's heir, and Antonia Clara were the two daughters who lived the longest period of time with him. Today there is a chamber shown as a bedroom for the two of them, although there is no information that confirms this chosen location. Details that help construct the authentic room have been included here. Two beds with corresponding canopies –the small one with blue fabric, and the other with a finer, green fabric—a chair, low table, stool, a chest for clothes, a sewing stool, an oil lamp and a holy font complete the decoration.

The damsels' rooms hides one of the most dramatic moments in the life of the poet, and the painful discovery of the kidnapping of his daughter Antonia Clara, a summer morning in

1634, when Lope did the find the young woman in her room and everything was in disarray ("de las reliquias y no santas, confuso estaba el suelo").
That was, without a doubt, the most painful and bitter memory in Lope de Vega's old age. "Cubrióse entonces de un humor sangriento / el corazón; las lágrimas heladas / no me dejaban ver el aposento".

This room, the most independent of the house, serves as a guest room, but at the same time, is a reminder of the most adventurous character who visited Lope's house, Friar Alonso de Contreras. The military man, author of Las aventuras del capitán Alonso de Contreras, lived for several months in Lope's house. In his memoirs, he wrote "Sin haberle hablado en mi vida, me llevó a su casa (...) Y me tuvo por su camarada más de ocho meses, dándome de comer y cenar, y aun vestido me dio. ¡Dios se lo pague!"

To decorate the room in the style of the times (there existed the Chamber Privilege: an obligation for citizens to house the members of the royal entourage), it contained a full bed with a canopy and curtain, a priest's chair, a chair, three stools, an oil lamp and a jug and basin.