Calle de la Esperanza

Lavapiés·Embajadores

The name has two competing interpretations. The tradition recorded by Antonio de Capmany and Pedro de Répide attributes it to a medieval landowner named Mari-Esperanza or María Esperanza Manuel de Villena, in whose estate Bertrand du Guesclin lodged during the Castilian civil war. The town, loyal to Peter I, burned the house around 1369; King Henry II compensated the owner, but she did not return to the site, which in time gave the street its name. The alternative interpretation holds that the name is religious: it belongs to a group of streets given unmistakably Christian names (Fe, Esperanza, Ave María) when the district was built up in the 17th century, probably in the context of the expulsion of the Moriscos decreed by Philip III in 1609.

Calle de la Esperanza, short and of ancient layout, links calle del Ave María with calle de la Torrecilla del Leal. It has borne the same name since at least the 17th century. The story that made it famous begins in the war between Peter I and his brother Henry of Trastámara. The Breton captain Bertrand du Guesclin, a mercenary of the Trastámaras, is said to have hidden in the country house of a woman named Mari-Esperanza. Madrid was then a town loyal to Peter I, and when it became known that the Breton was hiding there, a mob stormed the house and set it ablaze. Once king, Henry II compensated the owner, but she would not rebuild on the ashes. The tale is appealing, though it limps: in the 14th century this area was still open country outside the town, without the web of alleys that came later. Against the legend stands a soberer explanation: three religiously named streets cluster here —⁠Fe, Esperanza and Ave María⁠—⁠, a sign of a deliberate choice to name the district after Christian virtues.

Its names

  • Calle de la EsperanzaSiglo 17th–actualidad
Sources (7)

Crossings