Calle de la Concepción Jerónima

The name comes from a convent that took centuries to leave. Beatriz Galindo, “la Latina,” planned to build a monastery of Jerónima nuns beside Calle de Toledo, but the Franciscans won the lawsuit over the property before the Roman Rota. Displaced, the Jerónimas moved higher up to another of the family’s estates, where in 1509 they built the church that gave the street its name. The building survived the 1836 disentailment but not the late-century wrecking ball: in 1890 it was expropriated to open Calle del Duque de Rivas, and the nuns eventually left. The street runs today from Calle de Atocha to Plaza de Segovia Nueva. Diego Velázquez lived here just after arriving at court in 1623, at today’s number 21; a plaque recalls it. The street also housed the Court Jail and the Coliseo Imperial, which in 1905 opened Madrid’s first permanent cinema. The opening show left an unforgettable scene: an acrobat crashed through the stage wall after a somersault and landed in the next room, where some neighbours were quietly playing chess.