Calle Adrián Pulido

The man from Madrid who gives this street its name was born in 1606 and rose to captain general of the New Spain fleet, the navy that linked the metropolis with its American territories. He commanded it from 1659 until his death in Veracruz in 1660, barely a year after taking up the post. His fame, though, comes not from the sea but from a painting. Around 1639 Velázquez painted his full-length portrait, and tradition holds that Philip IV, entering the dimly lit studio, mistook the painting for Pulido himself in the flesh and scolded him for still being there. When the figure neither answered nor bowed, the king realized the brushes had fooled him. Experts still debate whether the work is by Velázquez or by his son-in-law Mazo. The street runs a little over a hundred meters between the Avenida de Isabel de Valois and the Calle de María Tudor, in a corner of Bellas Vistas where several streets honor historical figures.