Calle de los Tres Peces
The name comes from three fish carved in stone that decorated the façade of a house belonging to the endowment of Don Pedro de Solórzano. The obligation attached to that property was to deliver, each year on set days, three large fish to four religious institutions of 17th-century Madrid. The carved figures served as a visible reminder of the charitable levy, and in time gave the street its name.
Calle de los Tres Peces climbs between calle del Ave María and calle de Santa Isabel, and its name hides a pious arrangement that still hangs on a wall.
A house on the street, tied to the estate of Don Pedro de Solórzano, bore a peculiar debt, payable not in money but in fish. On St Francis of Paula’s day three large fish went to the convent of la Victoria; on St Raphael’s, three more to the Hospital of San Juan de Dios; on the Immaculate Conception, three to San Francisco and as many to San Bernardino. Each fish weighed at least five pounds, so the house delivered nearly thirty kilos of fresh fish a year —a costly luxury in an inland city like Madrid.
So that no future owner would forget the duty, someone had three fish carved in stone over the façade, and the name stuck. Anyone seeking the original trace can stop at number 25: the pumpkin-coloured ceramic plaque with three fish in relief is still there.
Its names
- Calle de los Tres Peces17th century – actualidad
Sources (8)
- Pedro de Répide, Las calles de Madrid (ed. Afrodisio Aguado, 1921-1925; reed. La Librería, 1995)
- Secretos de Madrid — El misterio de la calle de los Tres Peces
- Alfa y Omega — Tres peces
- Gato por Madrid — Calle de las Tres Cruces y los Tres Peces
- Memoria de Madrid (Archivo de la Villa) — documentos sobre Calle de los Tres Peces
- Enlavapies.com — La historia de la Calle de los Tres Peces
- Fotopaseo por Madrid calles — Calle de los Tres Peces
- Música y Pitanzas — La Calle de los Tres Peces