Calle de Almadén

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.

According to Pedro de Répide (Las calles de Madrid), the Hospital de los Cómicos was established in 1765 in a house on what was then called Calle de Jesús y María —⁠today Travesía de Fúcar, the stretch that came to be called Calle de Almadén⁠—⁠; it was founded by the confraternity of the Virgen de la Novena to aid actors and actresses, and later became an orphanage for girls run by the Caridad.