Calle de la Sombrerería

When Calle de la Sombrerería was laid out in 1872, Madrid was growing southwards and Lavapiés was filling in its grid of new streets. The street runs some 198 metres from Calle de Valencia to Calle de Argumosa. The name says exactly what the workshops here did: they made hats (sombreros). During the 19th century Lavapiés had several hat factories, and one of them stood on this very street. It should not be confused with the neighbouring Calle del Sombrerete, which sounds almost the same but hides another story, tied to the 1595 trial of Gabriel de Espinosa. Same rhyme, different roots. It was a district of workers and artisans, dense and bustling. The corralas built along the century, some restored in the 1990s, still keep in their galleries the memory of that crowded life.

Around 1929, Josemaría Escrivá walked this street to visit the sick in the neighborhood’s apartments, asking them to offer up their pain and their loneliness for the work that was beginning. The route is part of the founding itinerary of Opus Dei in Madrid and is documented by the institution itself.