Plaza de Santa Ana (Square of Saint Anne

Saint Anne

Saint Hanna of David's house and line, was the mother of the Virgin Mary and grandmother of Jesus Christ according to Christian and Islamic tradition. English Anne is derived from Greek rendering of her Hebrew name Hannah...

) is a plaza

Plaza

Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...

 located in central Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, nearby Puerta del Sol

Puerta del Sol

The Puerta del Sol is one of the best known and busiest places in Madrid. This is the centre of the radial network of Spanish roads. The square also contains the famous clock whose bells mark the traditional eating of the Twelve Grapes and the beginning of a new year...

 and Calle de Huertas, in the Barrio de las Letras. It features monuments to Spanish Golden Age

Spanish Golden Age

The Spanish Golden Age is a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain, coinciding with the political rise and decline of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. El Siglo de Oro does not imply precise dates and is usually considered to have lasted longer than an actual century...

 writer Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca , was a dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. During certain periods of his life he was also a soldier and a Roman Catholic priest...

 and the Granadian

Granada

Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...

 poet Federico García Lorca

Federico García Lorca

Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...

 and numerous restaurants, cafes and tapas

Tapas

Tapas are a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold or warm ....

 bars, with its terraces covering most of the sides surfaces.
Teatro Español, the oldest theater in Madrid, is located on the plaza's east side. It was built in seventeenth century and then had the name Corral del Príncipe. On the west side of the plaza, a luxury hotel (now ME Madrid Reina Victoria) was built in the early nineteenth century. The hotel achieved fame for being the favorite among the most popular bullfighters

Bullfighting

Bullfighting is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal, southern France and some Latin American countries , in which one or more bulls are baited in a bullring for sport and entertainment...

. For example, the regular guest Manolete

Manolete

Manuel Laureano Rodríguez Sánchez , better known as Manolete, was a Spanish bullfighter.He rose to prominence shortly after the Spanish Civil War and is considered by some to be the greatest bullfighter of all time. His style was sober and serious, with few concessions to the gallery, and he...

 always reserved room number 220 in superstition. The plaza is a popular meeting point

Meeting point

A meeting point is a geographically defined place where people meet - both for tourists and citizens. They are often landmarks which gain the reputation and become a popular as a safe and convenient place for people to meet....

 in Madrid.

History

The name derives from a monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 with the name Santa Ana that occupied the current location in the seventeenth century. The origins of the modern plaza go back to Joseph I

Joseph Bonaparte

Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte was the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily , and later King of Spain...

, who in 1810, with urban sanitation of Madrid in mind, demolished the old Carmelite monastery and the adjoining houses. The plaza began to take its current appearance, which was almost completed in 1880 when buildings that obstructed the view of the Teatro Español was demolished.

See also

• Plaza Mayor, Madrid
• Plaza de Colón (Madrid)
  Plaza de Colón (Madrid)
  Plaza de Colón is located in the Alonso Martínez district of Madrid, Spain. This plaza and its fountain commemorate the explorer Christopher Columbus, whose name in Spanish was Cristóbal Colón.- Monuments :...