Carmen Conde – Antonio Oliver Museum in Cartagena

Carmen Conde · 1907-1996 · Cartagena

The museum in Cartagena that reconstructs the sitting room and study of Carmen Conde and Antonio Oliver's last home in Madrid, with the furniture and objects she donated herself.

Schedule

Guided visits on scheduled dates · booking required

Admission

Free · booking required

Address

Calle Jacinto Benavente, 7, 30203 Cartagena

Visits

Always guided · groups of 10

The house

Carmen Conde's study, in Cartagena

Did you know that in Cartagena you can step into the study where Carmen Conde, the first woman to join the Royal Spanish Academy, used to work? It's not her house, but it's close: on the second floor of the Centro Cultural Ramón Alonso Luzzy, the sitting room and study of her last home, on Calle Ferraz in Madrid, have been reconstructed with the original furniture and decorative objects.

It was the writer herself who wanted these objects, together with her archive and her library, to stay in Cartagena. The museum also bears the name of her husband, the poet Antonio Oliver, because it was in these surroundings that the two of them created part of their work.

What's more, the Carmen Conde – Antonio Oliver Trust, which runs the museum, is one of only two members of the Association of Writers' House Museums and Foundations (ACAMFE) to bear the name of a woman writer. If you live in Cartagena or are planning a visit, don't miss it!

The statue of Carmen Conde on Calle del Carmen, in Cartagena. Photo: Cartagena City Council.

What you'll see on the visit

The sitting room

It recreates the entrance hall of her home on Calle Ferraz, with its armchairs, its bookcase and a green and white wool rug.

The study

You enter through a sliding door, and it keeps the writer's desk and the atmosphere in which she wrote.

Her belongings and keepsakes

Among the museum's nearly 600 pieces are treasures such as her Remington typewriter, Antonio Oliver's pen, a poem handwritten by Juan Ramón Jiménez and portraits of both writers, such as the one of Carmen Conde drawn by Gregorio Prieto.

Additional information

Carmen Conde's Cartagena

To round off your visit, head out into the streets with the Carmen Conde literary route, which takes you through the old town: it passes the street where she was born and ends on the quay, looking out over the shipyard where she wrote the poems of Brocal, her first book.

Plan your visit

Visits are always guided, free and by prior booking, in groups of 10. The City Council publishes each season's dates in its cultural events listings.

Book a visit

Additional information

It's on the second floor of the Centro Cultural Ramón Alonso Luzzy.
Phone: 968 128 924.
Email: carmenconde@ayto-cartagena.es (also for cancelling your booking).
The couple's archive and library are not in the museum: they are kept at the Cartagena Municipal Archive.
Before you go, you can take the virtual tour of the museum and download the museum guide as a PDF.
Cover photo: Cartagena City Council.