Calle de la Victoria

Sol

The name derives from the convent of Minim friars of San Francisco de Paula dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Victoria, founded in 1561 next to the Puerta del Sol. The street appears with this name on the maps of Teixeira (1656) and Espinosa (1769), placing it among the oldest names in the city center. There is a secondary thesis attributing the name directly to the order’s provincial, friar Juan de Vitoria, who promoted the foundation.

Barely 110 meters between the Carrera de San Jerónimo and calle de la Cruz, in the Sol district, are enough to hold four centuries of processions and aperitifs. The street takes its name from the convent of la Victoria, founded in 1561 beside the Puerta del Sol. When Teixeira drew his map of Madrid in 1656, the street already bore it: the convent had shaped the district’s vocabulary long before. Inside was kept the image of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, carried each Good Friday in procession across the Puerta del Sol. Mendizábal’s confiscation ended it all: the friars were expelled in 1836 and by 1838 the convent was demolished. From that monastic past the street kept a vocation for passing through and for taverns. In 1906 La Alicantina opened, later La Casa del Abuelo, which still serves its garlic prawns.

Its names

  • Calle de la VictoriaAnterior a 1656
  • Calle del Empecinado1868–c. 1875
  • Calle de la Victoriac. 1875–actualidad
Sources (9)

Crossings