Calle de los Abades

El Rastro·Embajadores

The name comes from the surname of two hidalgo brothers, Rodrigo and García Abad, aldermen of the town of Madrid, whose house with garden and orchard occupied this stretch between calle de Embajadores and Mesón de Paredes. The plural of the surname followed everyday usage: the neighbours called them “los Abades”, and the street was recorded under that name at least from Texeira’s map (1656). There is no connection with any church abbot or abbey.

Calle de los Abades barely spans a block between Embajadores and Mesón de Paredes, in the old medieval Mudéjar district, with those crooked lanes that still hold the memory of how southern Madrid grew. Behind the name are two brothers: Rodrigo and García Abad, town aldermen who spent their income on pious works and relief for the poor. When the knight Diego de Vera wanted to build an oratory, the Abad brothers put up the money, and from that oratory came, in 1644, a convent of Regular Clerics. Of the whole complex, only the church of San Millán and San Cayetano remains, on Embajadores, where the tomb of Pedro de Ribera rests. On their deaths, the brothers shared out their estate among the poor and the charity houses.

Its names

  • Calle de los Abadesanterior a 1656 — presente
Sources (7)

Crossings