Calle de la Amnistía

For over three centuries the site was occupied by the convent of the Visitation, which the whole neighbourhood called Santa Clara. Its end came in 1809, under Joseph Bonaparte: the imposed king wanted to clear the view towards the Royal Palace from the Puerta del Sol, and ordered everything in the way pulled down. Where the convent stood, a gap remained that served as a square for over twenty years. The street was laid out over that void in 1836. The name came from the amnesty María Cristina decreed in October 1833, a month after Ferdinand VII’s death, extending a hand to the liberals whose support the crown needed against Carlism. The neighbourhood jails that had held political prisoners were emptied. It is a short street, between calle del Espejo and plaza de Ramales. Its neighbours tell the same period: calle de la Independencia evokes the war of 1808, plaza de Ramales came from the same demolitions. The ceramic plaques on the corners show broken shackles over a royal edict, a visual rendering of the decree that named it.