Calle Alberto Bosch

Calle de Alberto Bosch occupies what were once orchards of the San Jerónimo el Real monastery, land the State sold in the 19th century that then passed to the development around the Retiro. It runs between calle de Ruiz de Alarcón and calle de Alfonso XII, in the Jerónimos neighborhood. Alberto Bosch y Fustegueras was a civil engineer, doctor of law and conservative politician, but the street’s name comes from his time as mayor, and the reason has something heroic about it. In his first term, between April and November 1885, he pushed through sanitation measures that halted a cholera epidemic in the city. The municipal recognition for that work ended up as this street sign.

On 2 July 1892, the day a new municipal levy on market stalls began to be collected, the women selling at the Mercado de la Cebada took to the streets and marched through the center of Madrid. The chronicler José Francos Rodríguez recorded what happened thus: “First came shouting; then, hurled tomatoes; later, fistfights and even gunshots; the officers drew their blades.” The episode, known as the greengrocers' riot, ended with the intervention of the Guardia Civil and precipitated the resignation of Bosch, who retired to an estate belonging to his wife in El Bonillo (Albacete).