Calle de Jordán

The name evokes the Holy Land river where Christ was baptized, but the street remembers a man. Esteban Jordán was a sculptor of the Castilian Renaissance, based in Valladolid and connected by marriage to the Berruguete family. He became court sculptor to Philip II, working directly for the king, and specialized in altarpieces. The king commissioned him to build the main altarpiece of the monastery of Montserrat, which French troops burned during the Peninsular War. Valladolid still keeps a Lament over the Dead Christ of his, from around 1580. The street is a modern opening in the Trafalgar district of Chamberí, running between the extension of Fuencarral and Plaza de Olavide, near the Glorieta de Quevedo.