Calle de Almadén
For the town of Almadén (Ciudad Real), whose cinnabar mines supplied the Empire with quicksilver — mercury — essential for amalgamating American silver. It was earlier called calle de Jesús, then Jesús y María, and travesía de Fúcar.
The name comes from the Arabic al-maʿdin, “the mine,” and points to a deposit that gave the Crown a fortune in gold without yielding an ounce of it. The mines of Almadén, in Ciudad Real, produced mercury, the liquid metal that separated silver from the ore brought from the Americas. Without it, the galleons would have returned half empty.
That strategic business ended up leased to a family of German bankers, the Fuggers, whose name Madrid turned into “los Fúcares” and who gave the neighboring street its name. This lane runs down from calle de Fúcar toward the paseo del Prado, and side by side they hold the two faces of the same trade: Fúcar for those who lent the money, Almadén for the mine that produced the mercury that held the empire together.
Its names
- Calle de los Trinitarios1656
- Calle de Jesús1769
- Calle de Jesús y Maríah.finales century18th
- Travesía de Fúcarh.1800–1835
- Calle de Almadénh.1835
Sources (6)
- Madrid: sus viejas calles — Jesús y María (calle de)
- Calle de Fúcar — Wikipedia
- La Calle Almadén en Madrid — Mi pueblo Almadén (blog)
- Por las calles de Madrid — Calle de Almadén (blog)
- Las calles de Madrid, Peñasco y Cambronero (1889) — BNE Biblioteca Digital Hispánica
- Plano de Texeira 1656 — Geoportal del Ayuntamiento de Madrid