Calle de las Dos Hermanas
The name recalls two sisters surnamed Ocampo, owners of the land on which the street was opened in the early 17th century. They founded a convent of Capuchin nuns on those lots —the nuns arrived from Aragon in 1618— but the project ended in rupture: the archbishop ordered the nuns expelled after complaints from the founders themselves, who would not accept losing control of the community. Pedro de Répide documents that the street earlier bore the name calle de Ocampo.
Whoever walks today along this pedestrian stretch between Mesón de Paredes and Embajadores treads ground that in the 17th century belonged to two women as wealthy as they were singular: the Ocampo sisters. The chronicles recall them wrapped in dark habits, devout and generous, and to them the street owes its name.
The best-documented chapter of their lives was a lawsuit. In the early 17th century they promoted a convent of Capuchin nuns on their property, but the nuns who arrived from Aragon in 1618 denied them the right of patronage. The archbishop of Toledo ruled in the founders' favor and ordered the nuns expelled; the foundation never took hold.
In 1925 the street gained an imposing neighbor: the Gran Teatro Pavón, one of the first buildings in Madrid built entirely in art deco, whose tower dominates the corner with Embajadores.
Its names
- Calle de Ocampo17th century (primera mitad)
- Calle de las Dos Hermanas17th century (segunda mitad) - actualidad
Sources (6)
- Madrid: sus viejas calles — Dos Hermanas (Calle de las)
- Calle de las Dos Hermanas — Wikidata Q52153425
- Placa conmemorativa — Las hermanas Ocampo (Pinterest / Paloma Muñoz)
- Leyenda: Las dos hermanas — DDFV Universidad Francisco de Vitoria
- Gran Teatro Pavón — Madrid Es Teatro
- Callejero OpenAlfa — Calle de las Dos Hermanas, Embajadores