Calle de la Morería

Calle de la Morería descends from plaza del Alamillo to the Campillo de las Vistillas, in the Los Austrias quarter. Its twisting course has barely changed since the Middle Ages, and that says everything: you walk over the plan of Mayrit, the Islamic town that preceded Madrid. The curves are the imprint of the Muslim urban fabric that outlived the conquest. When Alfonso VI took the city around 1083, the Muslim population stayed here under Mudejar status. They built an aljama around the Alamillo, with a mosque, baths, butcher, wedding house and cemetery. The net tightened: in 1502 the Catholic Monarchs imposed the choice between baptism or exile, and in 1507 it was agreed to close off the quarter with three gates. At number 17, since 1956, the Corral de la Morería has kept its pulse, a flamenco tablao renowned across half the world, set up by Manuel del Rey in a former dairy. The street that began as a frontier ended up setting Madrid’s nights to music.