Calle Agustín Querol

Before it bore a sculptor’s name, this street was known as calle de la S, a nickname that came from its curving line down the slope from the San Blas hill toward the paseo de la Reina Cristina. Today it runs between calle de José Anselmo Clavé and calle de Andrés Torrejón. The land belonged to the Royal Site of the Buen Retiro and was once part of the old Atocha olive grove. Agustín Querol was the sculptor with the greatest institutional standing at the turn of the century, and his hand is all over Madrid: the pediment of the National Library is his, as is the group La Gloria y los Pegasos crowning the Ministry of Public Works, and the monuments to Claudio Moyano and Quevedo. The popular nickname lasted until, after the sculptor’s death, the street was named after him around 1910, a few steps from the façade he had carved himself.