Flamenco in a sixteenth-century Jerez house

A house, a barrio, a reputation

The barrio where Jerez's flamenco is said to live

A city with a claim

Jerez's tourist office calls the city the birthplace of flamenco, especially of the bulería, and describes it as a place of great family sagas of singers. That is a local claim, and other places make theirs, but it explains why visitors come to Jerez to hear the art rather than only to read about it.

One of two Gitano barrios

The booking page describes San Miguel as one of the two Gitano neighbourhoods of the city, and the tourist office speaks of the mythical barrios of San Miguel and Santiago. The tablao sits in the first of them, near the Chapel of Angustias.

A house with layers

The venue's site calls the building a sixteenth-century palace house whose walls have housed a former synagogue, a convent and an orphanage, and says it served as hospitality premises from the 1950s before becoming a music venue.

A room for more than flamenco

The same site lists rock, jazz, funk and other concerts, plus exhibitions, over three floors. The flamenco show is one use of a house that keeps its doors open to many kinds of live music.

Lourdes Lobato — I grew up in Jerez, where bulerías turn up at weddings, christenings and street corners long before anyone explains them. Now I write about the city's flamenco for visitors who ask where to start, and the facts on these pages are taken from public sources that each guide names at its foot.