Calle de la Cruzada

One of the shortest streets in the Palacio district packs into a few metres a density of tenants that few long streets can match. It runs from Plaza de Santiago to Calle de San Nicolás, hugging the old Moorish perimeter of the fortress. The weightiest plot belonged to the Herrera family, then the Guzmáns; the Count-Duke of Olivares lived here for a time. Around 1750 came the Tribunal of the Holy Crusade, which collected the money sent from Rome for the defence of the Catholic faith and ended up naming the street. A trap awaits the stroller here: the city tile marks the Casa de la Cruzada at number 4, but the tribunal stood at number 3. The sign got the wrong door. At number 1, on the corner of Plaza de Santiago, the Taberna La Cruzada opened in 1827 and for nearly a century and a half drew palace halberdiers, the painter Zuloaga and the writers of the Generation of '98. Alfonso XII is said to have dropped in incognito to drink with the regulars. When the building was demolished in 1974, the tavern moved to Calle de la Amnistía.