Calle de las Navas de Tolosa

Sol

It has borne its current name since 5 May 1900, commemorating the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (Jaén), fought on 16 July 1212, in which the armies of Alfonso VIII of Castile, Peter II of Aragon and Sancho VII of Navarre defeated the Almohad caliph Muhammad al-Nasir. Until then it was known as calle de la Sartén, a name documented since at least the 16th century and attributed by tradition to the presence of reapers from the monastery of San Martín or to a merchant of kitchen utensils.

Calle de las Navas de Tolosa runs down through the Sol district, from the Postigo de San Martín to the junction where Trujillos, las Conchas and las Veneras tangle together. The ground belonged to the old monastery of San Martín, demolished around the mid-19th century. The present name came late, in 1900, when the town council was swapping popular names for milestones of national history. Before that it was calle de la Sartén, and it had the life of a bustling district: between 1815 and 1837 an amateur theater operated on its corner with la Ternera, where, it is said, Ferdinand VII himself would drop by. In 1913 the Municipal First Aid House opened here, a marvel for its time with an electric elevator, steam heating and an internal telephone, built thanks to a woman’s bequest. The building still stands and today houses a health center.

Its names

  • Calle de la Sartén16th-19th centuries (doc. 1742)
  • Calle de las Navas de Tolosafrom 5 de mayo de 1900
Sources (7)

Crossings