In 2025, Cuesta de Moyano celebrated its 100-year history in grand style with a wide range of activities that filled the twelve months of the year. Now, as a grand finale to this literary celebration, the Soy de la Cuesta Citizens’ Association is bringing this first century of history to a close with a free photography exhibition.
It is an exhibition of“historical photos and texts by Soy de la Cuesta that traces a hundred years of history on La Cuesta”and draws on images from sources such as the Santos Yubero Collection at the Regional Archive of the Community of Madrid, according to the association itself.
The photographs, displayed across six panels, span from the 1920s to 2010 and are accompanied by texts written by the association itself to provide context about this space which, in the words of the delegate for Culture, Tourism, and Sports, Marta Rivera de la Cruz, “has been part of our cultural and literary memory for a century.”
The exhibition is being shown at Madrid’s network of municipal libraries to bring it closer to the neighborhoods, and has already been on display at the Vargas Llosa (Centro), La Chata (Carabanchel), and Ángel González (Latina) libraries.
A traveling exhibition through Madrid’s libraries
The exhibition, as mentioned, is traveling, and after being on display at the Ángel González Library last March, it can be visited until April 30 at the María Zambrano Library (Complutense University of Madrid, Calle del Profesor Aranguren, s/n), in the Moncloa-Aravaca district.
The following stops have been planned as follows:
- Gerardo Diego Library (Calle del Monte Aya, 12): May 1–31, 2026. Villa de Vallecas.
- José Hierro Library (43 Rafaela Ybarra Avenue): June 1–30, 2026. Usera.
La Cuesta de Moyano, a permanent book fair since 1925
Before occupying the space we know today—integrated into the Paseo del Prado and the Buen Retiro Gardens, the Landscape of Arts and Sciences, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site— this permanent book fair had other locations.
Initially, the booksellers were located in the market at Plaza de Atocha, “where they shared customers with florists and fruit vendors,” explains the Madrid City Council. In 1919, they opened their stalls next to the gate of the Botanical Garden and officially became a book fair.
Finally, in 1925, the city council moved them to Claudio Moyano Street—named after the 19th-century politician who, in 1857, spearheaded the longest-standing education law in Spanish history—from which they take their name.
Following a request from the Soy de la Cuesta Association in 2023, on January 14, 2026, the Community of Madrid declared the Cuesta de Moyano Book Fair an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) in the Intangible Heritage category, recognizing “its historical and cultural value and its role as a benchmark of Madrid’s literary tradition.”
