Antonio Machado and the Palacio de las Dueñas
Born in a rented apartment at the Dueñas
Machado’s father was secretary to the Embassy in Chile and later worked as a notary in Madrid. In 1873, the family spent time in Seville, and his father rented an apartment in one of the Dueñas’ outbuildings. This was common at the time: the Alba family rented apartments to income-generating tenants in the ancillary buildings around the palace grounds. Machado was born in this rented space, and his earliest memories were formed in the palace courtyard and gardens. A commemorative plaque marks his birthplace; you’ll see it during your visit.
The lemon-tree lines
Machado’s most-quoted verses are these two lines from his poem cycle Soledades:
“Mi infancia son recuerdos de un patio de Sevilla, y un huerto claro donde madura el limonero.”
In English: “My childhood is memories of a courtyard in Seville, and a bright orchard where the lemon tree ripens.”
That orchard and that lemon tree are in the gardens of the Dueñas. Machado wrote about this place fifty years after leaving it, yet the image stayed with him perfectly: the marble-columned courtyard, the bougainvillea, the lemon tree heavy with fruit. When you walk through the palace, you understand why. The courtyards are exactly as he remembered them.
The lemon tree today
Yes, the actual tree is still there. The Dueñas’ gardeners have tended the lemon tree for over a century. It’s not a shrine or a museum artifact; it’s simply a working lemon tree in a working garden that supplies fruit to the household. But it bears the weight of being the tree that gave Machado one of Spanish poetry’s greatest images. Most visitors spend time at the tree, and it’s easy to see why.
After the palace: exile and death
Machado left Seville as a child, travelled to Madrid, Paris and Córdoba, became a teacher and a poet, and published his most important work in early adulthood. During the Spanish Civil War, he fled Spain in 1939 and went into exile in France. He died in Collioure, a small town on the Franco-Spanish border, in February 1939, within weeks of crossing the frontier. He never saw the Dueñas again. But the palace, the courtyard, and the lemon tree lived in his work.
The lemon tree is unguarded and unchanged. You can stand where Machado stood as a child, looking at the same tree, in a courtyard that hasn’t been theatricalized. That intimacy is why visitors come.
Frequently asked questions
Was Antonio Machado born in the Palacio de las Dueñas?
Yes, on 26 July 1875. His family rented an apartment in one of the palace’s outbuildings. A commemorative plaque marks the spot. He lived there only as an infant, but the palace’s courtyards and gardens shaped his childhood memory and later inspired his most famous lines.
What are Machado’s lemon-tree lines?
“Mi infancia son recuerdos de un patio de Sevilla, y un huerto claro donde madura el limonero.” Translated: “My childhood is memories of a courtyard in Seville, and a bright orchard where the lemon tree ripens.” He wrote them about the Dueñas, over fifty years after leaving.
Can I see the lemon tree he wrote about?
Yes. It’s in the palace gardens, still tended by the household gardeners. It’s a working tree, not a museum piece. Visitors often spend time there standing where Machado stood as a child.
Where did Machado die?
In exile in Collioure, France, in February 1939, during the Spanish Civil War. He fled Spain in 1939 and died just weeks after crossing the border. He never returned to the Dueñas.