Calle de la Berenjena

Barrio de las Letras·Cortes

For the aubergine gardens that occupied this land before it was built up. They were attributed to the Marquis of Castañeda, a gentleman of Henry IV; the monastery of San Jerónimo was a later owner.

The aubergines from these gardens were so renowned that vendors hawked them at the top of their voices as the marquis’s own. The cry stuck so firmly that a 15th-century poet, Juan Álvarez Gato, set it down in his verses. Who really owned that land remains unclear: some give it to the Marquis of Castañeda, others to the friars of San Jerónimo. The street appears unnamed on Teixeira’s 1656 map and already christened de la Berenjena on Espinosa’s of 1769. By then the gardens were numbered, and they vanished as the Barrio de las Letras grew up around them.

Its names

  • [sin nombre asignado]1656
  • Calle de la Berenjenah.1769
Sources (8)

Crossings