La Baltasara: Antonio Gala House Museum
The estate, whose 19th-century rural Málaga architecture was preserved, and which captivated the writer in the late 1980s—just as he was about to transition from theater 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 ‘tiered green landscape, that clear sky, that tireless light…,’ as he himself described it, formed a space of solitude: a resonant solitude, chosen by Gala herself.
…‘Always attentive to the different processes that creation uses to emerge, I was tempted from a very young age to look around at non-literary creators, whose means of expression are visual art or rhythm, volume or time. I always dreamed of understanding the paths of those who neither wrote nor needed words as a medium of expression. In my mind, they had to be studied and critiqued for my own multiplication and enrichment. I was drawn to a kind of Pythagorean community in which creators from diverse backgrounds would produce among themselves a sort of cross-fertilization that made them grow mutually, elevate each other, and enter into the enthusiasm where creation resides.’” Thus spoke Antonio Gala about the Foundation that bears his name.
The Antonio Gala Foundation for Young Creators is based in Córdoba, in the 17th-century Corpus Christi convent, remodeled for its new use by the Cordoban architect and Gala’s friend, Rafael de la Hoz: “There, young creators work both in isolation and together, exchanging experiences among painters and musicians, writers and sculptors. They encourage one another, elevate each other, share their respective raptures, and thus the coexistence is happy, intense, fruitful, and joyful.” With the acquisition of La Baltasara by the Town Hall of Alhaurín el Grande in October 2020, the estate began a new phase, even more closely connected to the Foundation.
“Where for centuries reflection and the most spiritual love once flourished, the yearnings, desires, projects, tremors, and light of young creators have now taken root—who afterward, wherever they go, carry the fertile memory of their stay. Hence, its motto is a verse from the Song of Songs: Pone me ut signaculum super cor tuum (Set me as a little seal upon your heart).”
The Town Hall of Alhaurín el Grande, through its Department of Culture, has taken charge of the new space. La Baltasara has been transformed into the Antonio Gala House Museum, yet remains entirely intact: both the main residence, of about 380 square meters, and the other rooms, gardens, and orchards that make up the 30,000-square-meter estate—bordered by the Fahala River—are exactly as the writer left them after his permanent move to Córdoba.
Furniture, belongings, personal items, library… Everything is in its place. And it has been transformed into a multidisciplinary cultural center, connected to the Antonio Gala Foundation and to Alhaurín el Grande.
