Calle de la Pasa

Los Austrias·Palacio

The name comes from the custom of Cardinal-Infante Luis de Borbón y Farnesio, Archbishop of Toledo, of handing out fistfuls of raisins (pasas) to the poor from a back door of the archiepiscopal palace that opened onto this street. The practice was stopped because of the disorder it caused among the beggars who gathered there. The street already appears under this name on Espinosa’s 1769 map, placing the origin of the name in the mid-eighteenth century or earlier.

In the heart of Habsburg Madrid, between plaza de Puerta Cerrada and plaza del Conde de Barajas, this street was already drawn on Texeira’s 1656 map, though no one had named it then. The explanation lives at number 3, where the palace stood that served as residence for the archbishops of Toledo when they stayed at court. The ecclesiastical vicarage worked there, and since civil marriage did not yet exist, every couple wishing to marry had to pass through. From that obligatory parade came the saying: “he who does not pass through Calle de la Pasa does not marry” (pasa/casa). The palace also gave out an alms of raisins, a custom kept up by Cardinal-Infante Luis de Borbón y Farnesio, Archbishop of Toledo. The distribution was eventually stopped: the quarrels among those waiting their turn became impossible to control.

Its names

  • Sin nombre registrado1656
  • Calle de la PasaDocumentada en 1769
  • Calle de la Pasa (tramo acortado)Siglo 19th – actualidad
Sources (7)

Crossings