official neighbourhood of Justicia

Las Salesas

After the Convent of the Salesas Reales, founded in the mid-eighteenth century by Bárbara de Braganza, wife of Ferdinand VI, for the nuns of the Visitation (the Salesian sisters). Today it houses the Supreme Court, which gives the quarter its official name of Justicia (Justice).

The official name, Justicia, comes from the Supreme Court, which today occupies the Convent of the Salesas Reales, founded in the mid-eighteenth century by Bárbara de Braganza, wife of Ferdinand VI; both rest there. It is a serene corner of palaces and convents, laid out for the court of Ferdinand VI. Doña Bárbara left her name to a street and her tomb to the church; around it settled marquises and counts —⁠Ensenada, Xiquena⁠— with an air of the courtroom that can still be felt. Today, beneath the same vaults, the last word is handed down: that of the Supreme Court. Cases are argued a step away from a street named after Justinian, the emperor who set the laws in order, and people stroll with the calm of those in no hurry. Where the nuns once prayed, judgment is now passed.

Streets

Part of the official neighbourhood of Justicia —the part Madrid knows as Las Salesas—, street by street.