Corral de comedias de Almagro

Corral de comedias de Almagro ("Courtyard theatre of Almagro") is located at Plaza Mayor in Almagro, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. The building is the best preserved example in the world of the corral de comedias of the 17th century.

Rediscovered during the renovation of the Plaza Mayor in 1953, it was inaugurated on 29 May 1954 with a play by Calderon de la Barca. The Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico (International Classical Theatre Festival), is annually celebrated at the corral.

This corral de comedias, initially under private ownership and later given to charity, was located within the precincts of an inn situated on the southern side of Plaza Mayor in the city center. The construction of the place where the theatre is now located, is in conformity with the prevalent building codes in Spain in 1584. A report from 1618 verifies it to be the last open air theater in the country.

Its establishment is on a report dated 1628 and credited to Don Leonardo de Oviedo, cleric and ordained priest of the former parish of St. Bartholomew in Calatrava. Descended from an Asturian family of Jewish origin, he made a payment of 5,000 ducats, a fortune at the time, in order to build this corral by expanding the well-known Taberna del Toro through the acquisition of neighboring properties. After the death of Don Leonardo in February 1640, the property ownership passed on to his sister Dona Beatriz de Oviedo y Prado, who bequeathed it to her daughter Dona Maria de Bivero y Prado, to be inherited by her son Don Bernardino de Villarreal y Oviedo in 1715. A lawsuit filed on 2 August of that year, already attested to its existence in 1680.

The first recorded performance was given in 1629 by Juan Martinez's theatrical company Autor, one of the twelve authorized companies to perform such plays in Spain. In 1631, the companies of Francisco Lopez and Alonzo Olmedo Tofino staged their plays here. In the eighteenth century, with the enforced prohibition on corral construction, that corral the comedias was converted into a lodging house known by the names Taberna de las Comedias and Taberna de la Fruta, a fact which greatly contributed to its preservation. The corral was again reported to be in use in 1802, but no trace was left of the structure after 1857, except for its use as a courtyard.

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