Calle de los Cabestreros

Between Mesón de Paredes and Embajadores, in the heart of Lavapiés, a street preserves the trade that once filled it with busy hands: here worked the halter-makers (cabestreros), hemp rope-makers who twisted the fibre into lead-ropes, halters and harnesses. On such gear depended the Madrid that came before machines. The guild truly took root: it bought land to build a chapel to its patron, Saint Anthony the Abbot. At the crossing with Mesón de Paredes flowed a fountain the neighbourhood nicknamed “of the Studs” or “of the Braggarts”, believing its waters boosted virility. A verse ran: “He’s a stud because he’s drunk the water of Cabestreros”. The current one, from 1934, is one of only two fountains with Republican symbolism to survive in the city. In time the workshops moved towards Toledo. The name, however, stayed where it had been born.

The street’s fountain was known as the “Fountain of the Males” or “of the Braggarts” because of the popular belief that its waters granted masculine vigor. The coplilla that circulated in the neighborhood ran: “This one is a male because he has drunk the water of Cabestreros”. One hypothesis points to the high birth rate of the humble neighborhood of Lavapiés; another, to the image of the craftsmen themselves testing their strength beside the fountain as they hauled the freight carts.