Calle de Latoneros

Sol

The street takes its name from the brass-workers‘ guild (latoneros) that set up its workshops and foundries here, probably from the 16th century, when brass displaced copper and bronze in household utensils and liturgical pieces. Peñasco and Cambronero (1889) put it plainly: “The name comes from the brass-workers’ shops that were in the street.”

Between calle de Toledo and plaza de Puerta Cerrada, this street was from the 16th century the artisan heart of the Madrid growing beyond the walls. Here the brass-workers (latoneros) worked, and the name comes from their trade. Out of their workshops came braziers on claw feet, trays, lecterns, monstrances, censers and candlesticks. The city’s greatest concentration of churches crowded around Puerta Cerrada, and those churches were the trade’s main customers: keeping the workshop at the client’s door made perfect sense. Brass-workers and knife-makers were the only artisans who stayed in their original spot from the 16th century well into the 20th. While other trades moved or vanished, they remained fixed to the same point for more than three centuries.

Its names

  • sin denominaciónanterior a c. 1656
  • Calle de los Herreros de Puerta Cerrada (hipotética)17th century (?)
  • Calle de los Latonerosanterior a 1769 – hasta hoy
Sources (5)

Crossings