01 La Baltasara. Antonio Gala House Museum
The Baltasara House Museum Antonio Gala
The estate, which retained its 19th-century Malaga rural architecture and which the writer fell in love with in the late 1980s – just as he was about to make the leap from theatre to novels – was, for at least three decades, a place hidden from the general public.
It was the secret garden of Gala and her closest friends: her guests in the garden. That ‘green, terraced landscape, that clear sky, that tireless light…’, as he himself described it, formed a space of solitude: the sonorous solitude chosen by Gala himself.
02 The surroundings. A paradise
‘Here I retreat, here I work, reflect, digest the sounds, although the silence is rarely interrupted. I see the lights fall, the lights rise, brush the treetops with golden fingers, hear the wind ruffle them…’
03 Antonio Gala’s house
Blue wisteria on the arbour, me in the cottage, a little garden with rosemary and myrtle, the eucalyptus trees guarding Antonio’s dogs’ graves, lined up side by side…
04 La Baltasara. The Hermit Actress
La Baltasara: the actress hermit
‘La Baltasara has everything good. / She has everything good, / including her face.’ She retires, alone, near Lorca, where there is a tile mural by Egea Azcona that embellishes the estate’s garden with an ironic yet beautiful vision of La Baltasara.
05 Antonio Gala at home. Memories of his secretary
He knew how to see its potential. Not far from the centre, for logistical reasons; not too big or too small, for privacy reasons; and, as he said, it was and is 25 kilometres from everything: the coast, Malaga, the airport, Marbella… It was true: he turned it into what it is today, but with a lot of effort, hard work, care and attention.
06 Antonio Gala, Andalusian universal (Biography)
Antonio Gala, naturalised Andalusian
He went to the seashore at midnight.
I knew that God was there,
and that the sand and you
and the sea and I and the moon
were God. And I worshipped him.
(“Playa de El Palo”, taken from the poetry collection “Testamento andaluz”, published in 1994)
07 Blog What to do in Baltasara?
What to do in La Baltasara?
A visit to the Antonio Gala La Baltasara House Museum offers a unique cultural and heritage experience centred on the figure and legacy of the writer Antonio Gala. It is not just a visit to a traditional museum, but a living, multidisciplinary space that invites visitors to delve into the author’s intimate and creative universe, explore the places where he wrote and lived, and discover his natural and human environment. In addition to the museum visit, the space offers cultural, educational and artistic activities (dramatised tours, literary conferences, concerts and workshops) that enrich the experience and consolidate its role as a leading cultural centre.