Calle de Guillermo Rolland

In barely 106 metres, between calle de la Bola and plaza de la Marina Española, this street in the Palacio quarter gathers a remarkable density of history, a few steps from the Encarnación Monastery and the Senate. Texeira’s map already drew it in 1656 as calle de las Rejas, after the great wrought-iron windows of its main houses. At number 2 still stands the Casa de las Rejas, built in 1612 for Juan de Ciriza, secretary to Philip III. A fire destroyed its roof in 1980; restored, it now houses the Higher School of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. Across the way rose the Palace of María Cristina of Bourbon, destroyed by another fire during the Vicálvaro uprising of 1854 and never rebuilt. The present name honours Guillermo Rolland the elder, a French merchant who arrived in 1834, opened a lace shop on Preciados and founded a banking house. At number 7, the writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna was born on 3 July 1888; he unveiled his own commemorative plaque on his last visit to Madrid.