Calle de la Escuadra

Lavapiés·Embajadores

The most likely origin lies in the street’s bent layout, whose plan forms a right angle like that of a carpenter’s or geometer’s set square (escuadra). The same logic names the nearby Calle del Codo: two Lavapiés streets named for the shape of their plan, not for a historical event. The versions invoking the Spanish Armada are late legends with no primary documentation.

Calle de la Escuadra makes a short, angular bend in the heart of Lavapiés, between Calle de la Torrecilla del Leal and Calle de la Primavera. It is walked in a few steps, yet the name carries centuries of dispute. On Texeira’s 1656 map it had no name; in 1761 it appears as Calle de Santa Inés; and by 1769 it already bears today’s name. The most theatrical legend claims that, in the time of Philip II, foreigners staged here an optical show of the Grande y Felicísima Armada and its disaster. But the dates don’t add up: that device, the cosmorama, was not invented until 1808, more than two centuries after the king’s death. Another version spoke of Armada captains living here, with no record to support it. The soberest explanation looks at the ground: the name would come from the street’s own plan, folded at an angle like a carpenter’s set square. A few metres away, Calle del Codo is named for the same reason. The reference work on Madrid’s street names settles on this reading as the most plausible.

Its names

  • Sin nombreAnterior a 1761 (visible en plano de Texeira, 1656)
  • Calle de Santa Inésc. 1761 (plano de Chalmandrier)
  • Calle de la Escuadra1769 en adelante (plano de Espinosa de los Monteros)
Sources (7)

Crossings