Calle de Galdo

Known as calle del Candil for centuries, that name still beats beneath the one anyone reads today. It crosses the Sol quarter between Preciados and Carmen, pedestrianised since the turn of the century, one of the flanks leading toward the city’s busiest shopping district. Where did that candil (oil lamp) come from? The sober version says a chandler opened his workshop there and hung a great lamp at the door. The other, told in hushed tones, holds that during the 14th-century siege a spinning woman guided Henry of Trastámara, lamp in hand, through an underground tunnel to the heart of Madrid, and that the name was her reward. Répide sided with the chandler. Today’s name honours Galdo, naturalist and mayor in 1869-1870, who in a few months promoted the Aguirre Schools and named the streets of the brand-new Salamanca district. He also wrote the first Natural History textbook in Spanish, used in schools for forty-six years.