Calle de Don Pedro

A narrow street between plaza de Puerta de Moros and the Vistillas, in the Palacio quarter, its line tracing the outer moat of the medieval wall. A sewer once ran here in front of the Puerta de Moros, and from that feature the street took its popular name for centuries. But the real story stood behind it. Here rose the palace of the Lasso de Castilla family, built in the 15th century by Don Pedro de Castilla, great-grandson of King Peter I, and enlarged by his son Don Pedro Laso de Castilla. It topped 5,500 square metres and lodged half of Spanish history: the Catholic Monarchs, Joanna the Mad and Philip the Handsome, Cardinal Cisneros. Between the 17th and 18th centuries it became one of the grandest streets in the area. The poet Pedro Salinas lived at number 6 in his youth, and at number 4 the actress Lina Morgan was born on 20 March 1937.