Calle de Gil Imón

The name comes from Baltasar Gil Imón de la Mota, a jurist born around 1545 in Medina del Campo who rose to president of the Council of Finance under Philip IV. As the owner of land along the town wall, he lent his surname to a gate near the convent of San Francisco, and from there it passed to the street, which has borne this name since 1863. Another story attached itself to him. A much-repeated legend traces the origin of the Spanish insult “gilipollas” to his daughters, the “gilimonas,” young women who strolled the Prado in forbidden finery until their father made them dress like nuns. The tale has no proof: the word can instead be traced to Caló, meaning innocent or naive. The street is a short stretch of Arganzuela linking Ronda de Segovia with Paseo Imperial, along what was once the walled edge of Madrid.