Calle Academia
The street owes its name to the Real Academia Española, whose southern façade faces this street. The building, designed by Miguel Aguado de la Sierra, was built between 1891 and 1894 on a plot granted by the Crown within the Jerónimos neighborhood, and inaugurated on 1 April 1894 under the presidency of the regent queen María Cristina.
When Isabella II sold the land of the old Buen Retiro Palace to the State, the Jerónimos neighborhood opened up from 1865 onward. Among the new streets, one ran between Ruiz de Alarcón and Alfonso XII, parallel to the southern façade of San Jerónimo el Real. It was named Calle Academia even before the Academy moved there: the sign came before the institution that would give it meaning.
The Real Academia Española had occupied a building on calle Valverde since 1793. In the late 19th century the Crown gave it a plot in the newly laid-out neighborhood, where Miguel Aguado de la Sierra built its permanent home in a Greek-inspired classicist style. The building was inaugurated on 1 April 1894, with Queen María Cristina and the young Alfonso XIII among those present.
Few streets in Madrid can boast of having known what they would be called before they had a single resident.
Sources (7)
- Madrid: sus viejas calles — Academia (Calle de la)
- Real Academia Española y su calle en Madrid — Gato por Madrid
- Sede de la Real Academia Española — Wikipedia
- BOE-A-1998-6166 — Real Decreto 333/1998, de 27 de febrero
- Sede institucional — Real Academia Española
- Miguel Aguado de la Sierra — Real Academia de la Historia
- Certificación del arquitecto Miguel Aguado de la Sierra (dic. 1891 – feb. 1892) — Archivo RAE