Calle de Galileo
Recalls Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), the Pisan astronomer and physicist who defended the heliocentric model and improved the telescope; the street has borne his name since 1880.
The astronomer from Pisa who trained the telescope on the heavens and argued that the Earth circled the Sun gave his name to this Chamberí street on 21 July 1880. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) observed the moons of Jupiter and paid dearly for defending heliocentrism: the Inquisition sentenced him to recant and to spend his final years under arrest. Hence the phrase legend attributes to him, eppur si muove, “and yet it moves.”
When the street was laid out, this edge of the new district still brushed against open country, with vacant lots dotted with old cemeteries. It began at paseo de Areneros, today calle de Alberto Aguilera.
At number 100 survives one of Madrid’s most veteran live-music venues, in a former cinema. Farther up, the Centro Cultural Galileo occupies a Neo-Mudéjar building from 1898 that began as a coach house for hearses.