Calle de la Traviesa

Los Austrias·Palacio

The name describes the topographic function of the street: “traviesa” is a variant of “travesía”, the Spanish term for the alley that connects two main streets crosswise. The street runs from Calle Mayor to Calle del Sacramento, working exactly as the kind of way its name designates.

Calle de la Traviesa is a short street in the Palacio district, running between Calle Mayor and Calle del Sacramento. It is easy to miss: it forms one side of the great block occupied by the palace built around the first third of the 17th century for the marquises of Cañete, today home to the Centro Sefarad-Israel. The street was born with it, as a service way for that mansion. The name is pure geography of function. It comes from travesía: a passage, almost an alley, linking Calle Mayor with the Sacramento. It never had any other nickname, so it is at once its description and its proper name. The great chroniclers of Madrid’s streets, who preferred long streets or ones with a legend, paid it little attention.

Its names

  • Calle de la Traviesa17th century – actualidad
Sources (9)

Crossings