The large cities of the Kingdom of Spain
     
Seville
Naples
Lisbon

Seville
   
At the time when Tirso de Molina writes El Burlador de Sevilla, Madrid is the official capital of Spain, but Seville is without doubt the most important and prosperous city of the Kingdom. This city reaches its zenith in the second half of the 16th century
A fluvial port on the Guadalquivir, Seville is the biggest mercantile intersection between Europe and the American colonies.
She receives both the galleons loaded with gold and silver, and those that deliver the numerous imports that Europe provides to Spain, purchased with this wealth.
Besides, as the King decreed that his colonies should only trade with Spain, almost all the traffic passes through Seville, resulting in the movement of hundreds of ships per year.
In addition, the activity created by this commerce engenders an immoderate social life which distinguishes Seville from all other Spanish cities.
Madrid: Plaza Mayor
of the XVIIth century
   
Seville - by Francisco Pacheco - Madrid -
This city is unique, as much for its intense economic activity, as for its multi-ethnic population and individual outlook. The atmosphere is even electric because the money generated there is not earned without risk and the traffic with the West Indies is fraught with potentially ruinous dangers. In order to entreat providence, to forget the dangers of the long crossings, or merely to celebrate their wealth, the Sevillans affect a certain lack of concern and ostentatious life-style. Even the clergy is infected by this fever and the Chapter declares, when announcing the edification of the cathedral :
Let's raise a monument to make posterity believe that we were mad.
   
In this southern climate, luxury and permanent celebration can only incite exaggerated behaviour, or even debauchery. Therefore Don Juan is perfectly at ease there. Seville is the ideal city to appease all his appetites and he can embrace it with greater pleasure since it enjoys the reputation of having the most beautiful and elegant women in the kingdom.
On the second day, Octavio reminds his valet of this when he says :
    Octavio :
    (…) Yes, my dear man, and a woman of Seville! And if you want to know something astonishing, Seville is home to beautiful and strong men, but it also has gracious women. A mantilla made of lace that veils a beautiful face, a radiance hiding a pure light, if not in Seville, where would one find them ?
El guadalquivir - Seville
   
Costume of Seville

Furthermore, the particular topography of the city inherited from the Arabs makes it auspicious to the pursuit of love. This is notably the case of the district of Santa Cruz that kept an aspect of the medina with narrow streets, balconies and latticed windows, where Don Juan intercepts the love letter destined for the Marquis de la Mota :
For you, Marquis, through this grille, I was given a message of love, without seeing the one that gave it to me. Only by the voice, I knew that it was a woman. Can one imagine this scene in one of the great austere streets of Madrid?
Because it is sparkling, luxurious, secret and dangerous, Seville is the urban theatre ideally suited for the gallivanting of a seducer and a burlador such as Don Juan and the city thus becomes,in the play, a premier attraction for the public of the time.