Calle de las Beatas

Conde Duque·Universidad

The name comes from a beaterio of Dominican tertiaries under the invocation of Saint Catherine of Siena that occupied the block from 1574, before the Premonstratensians took over the site in 1611. Manuel Fernández y González (1880) disagrees and places on the same spot a beaterio of Servites of the Blessed Sacrament, disputing the community’s identity. In either case, the popular name crystallized in reference to the religious women without enclosure who roamed the markets and noble houses of Madrid asking for alms, recognizable by their white headdress.

Between San Bernardo and the plaza de los Mostenses, in Malasaña, there was a street that took its name from a handful of women who lived there for barely thirty-seven years. That beaterio, Dominican or Servite, was founded in 1574 and vanished in 1611, when the religious women handed the building over to the Premonstratensians. The convent left, but the name of the beatas held on for three centuries. Until 1821 the northern stretch bore a sign hard to read aloud without smiling: Aunque os pese (“Whether it pains you or not”). And it was not alone: it stood alongside Enhoramala vayas (“Bad luck to you”) and Sal si puedes (“Get out if you can”), phrases taken from the rulings of a neighborhood lawsuit and nailed to the corners as street names. The town council deemed them indecorous and erased them in 1821. The main street kept the name of the beatas until 1899, when it passed to honor the poet Antonio Fernández Grilo. Since then only the Travesía de las Beatas keeps the urban trace of that beaterio.

Its names

  • Calle de las Beatasca. 1574 – 1821 (tramo principal)
  • Travesía de las Beatas (antes: Aunque os pese)1821 – actualidad
  • Calle de Antonio Grilo (antes: Calle de las Beatas)15 de marzo de 1899 – actualidad
Sources (10)

Crossings