Calle de Cristo

A narrow pedestrian street linking Amaniel with the calle del Limón, in the Universidad district, the old Maravillas. It has been closed to traffic for decades, long before Madrid pedestrianised by decree, and hence its air of an inner alley, almost a village set within the city. The name comes from an image of Christ venerated on the estate of Juan de Amezqueta, owner of the site in the time of Philip IV. It is said that an episode of conspiracy occurred there which the king resolved, and that the image ended up earning the byname Cristo de la Luz. The story appears in no old documents, so it is best taken for what it is: a neighbourhood tradition. It had another name that passed from mouth to mouth, Travesía de los Guardias de Corps, after the royal companies that crossed it on their way to the Conde Duque Barracks. And it keeps an unusual detail: before the mid-twentieth century it had a horsemeat shop that drew buyers from all over Madrid, where even the flesh of the picadors' horses killed at Las Ventas was sold.