Plaza de la Virgen de los Reyes is a square in Seville, set between the cathedral and the Alcázar, where the novel brings together the city’s layered history and its recurring mysteries. It is the site of a reported Comodín appearance in 1946, the address of a hotel chosen for Frank and Vera’s reunion, and a passageway on the route that leads Frank back into the Alcázar gardens.

Setting and Character

The square’s striking acoustic character is attributed to La Giralda and the high walls surrounding the Alcázar. In José’s account, those features give the open space an unusual resonance: the bells on Comodín’s costume are said to have sounded clearly as he ran across it. The setting is not merely a backdrop to the legend; its distinctive acoustics help make the jester’s brief passage memorable and apparently audible to witnesses.

The square also sits at a junction of civic and historical landmarks. The 1946 account places Comodín’s route toward the Archivo General de Indias and Puerta de Jerez, while a later visit crosses the square from La Giralda into the Alcázar gardens. Its position makes it a literal threshold between the cathedral precinct, the city streets, and the enclosed garden landscape.

Comodín’s Reported Appearance

José tells Frank that Comodín was seen in the square on a June night in 1946, 52 years after an earlier appearance. The little jester reportedly ran across the square toward the Archivo General de Indias and Puerta de Jerez, with his bells ringing. The account extends the story’s recurring 52-year interval into twentieth-century Seville and gives the legend a precise urban setting.

The episode also sustains uncertainty rather than resolving it. Frank wonders whether José is deluded or simply a storyteller, and whether Ana may therefore still be alive. The square’s place in the tale connects an ostensibly local sighting to Frank’s larger uncertainty about the jester’s impossible longevity and Ana’s fate.

A Meeting Point for Frank and Vera

Much later, the square becomes part of the practical arrangements for Frank and Vera’s reunion. Frank books a room at Hotel Doña María, which faces the cathedral and La Giralda on the square, and reserves another room for Vera, expecting her to join him after his repeated pleas. The address turns a landmark associated with the uncanny into a concrete place of anticipated intimacy and renewed contact.

When José later guides Frank through Seville, they cross the square beside a long line of horse-drawn carriages before entering the Alcázar gardens. The route carries the story from public space into the palm-filled gardens, where Frank recognizes a landscape that recalls Taveuni. The square thus helps connect the couple’s reunion in Seville to the novel’s earlier island setting without erasing the distance between the two places.

Narrative Significance

The square gathers several kinds of time into one legible location: the legendary 1946 sighting, the contemporary plans for Frank and Vera, and Frank’s later walk toward the gardens. Its repeated appearances make the city feel both navigable and charged with returns. A hotel reservation and a familiar crossing of the plaza coexist with a tale of a figure who seems to move across generations.

That contrast gives the location its particular narrative force. The same square can serve as an ordinary meeting point, a feature of Seville’s geography, and the acoustic stage for an impossible legend. From it, the story moves between personal reunion and historical mystery, allowing the city’s landmarks to hold both without supplying a final explanation.