Galdosian route: 07. The Gabinete Literario

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Routes · Subcategory: Galdosian route

Galdós, on his way through the Plaza de Cairasco, was able to contemplate the first theatre in Las Palmas, inaugurated in 1845. Work had started on it two years earlier on the plot of land where the convent of Santa Clara had once stood.

Although Galdós went to the Academia de Dibujo art school and used to go to concerts and artists' sessions at the Gabinete, never saw its present day design, as it underwent successive refurbishments by architect Fernando Navarro between 1901 and 1920, turning what was once a neoclassical theatre construction into a real social leisure venue inside a modernist building.

He may also have known the first Colegio de San Agustín, which was founded by the Gabinete in that very area, at calle Dr. Déniz (formerly Santa Clara).

However, Galdós hardly refers to it at all in his childhood memoirs. Unsurprisingly, in his Memorias de un desmemoriado, he says: «I am leaving out references to my childhood, as they lack any real interest, and is not unlike the childhood of other kids or young hard working students».

The Gabinete Literario was founded in 1844, taking up several rooms of the Coliseo or Cairasco Theatre. It was the force behind many of the city's great projects, and owed its name to the exemplary way each apiring member had to hold a book in a gentlemanly manner. In its Golden Room, next to other illustrious portraits, we can see the last painting of Galdós, by Canary artist Juan Carló in 1918.

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