Calle de las Hileras

Sol

The most likely name points to the guild of spinners who made gold thread for the embroiderers of the parallel street (Calle de Bordadores). Ruiz de Luna’s ceramic sign —⁠the street’s official marker⁠— accepts this hypothesis. Other theories point to the rows of horses waiting to be shod in the adjacent square, or to the rows of trees in the old Huerta de la Reina; neither of these has direct documentary support.

Calle de las Hileras climbs between plaza de Herradores and plaza de San Martín, cutting across calle del Arenal, in the Sol district. For centuries it was the path linking the walled city with the San Martín outskirts. It helps to see it as two streets stitched together. The lower stretch smelled of the forge: medieval records list it as Herrerías, after the metalworkers who hammered there. In the 17th century the name Hileras spread to the whole street. The entire district breathed trade —⁠Bordadores runs parallel, Herradores names the square⁠— and hence the most repeated hypothesis about the “hileras” (“rows”): the craftsmen of gold thread. A detail few would imagine: in 1858 the Balneario de San Felipe Neri opened here, the first place in Madrid where hydrotherapy was applied under medical supervision. By 1870, 32,000 bathers had passed through its tubs.

Its names

  • Calle de la Ferrería / HerreríasEdad Media (documentada hacia 1380)
  • Bodega de San Martín16th-17th centuries (tramo superior)
  • Calle de las HilerasSiglo 17th en adelante
Sources (8)

Crossings