Calle de Monteleón

Malasaña·Universidad

The name recalls the noble palace that occupied the site from the mid-17th century. It belonged to the marquises of the Valley of Oaxaca and dukes of Monteleón and Terranova, descendants of Hernán Cortés through the sixth marchioness Juana de Aragón Pignatelli, who in 1639 married Héctor Pignatelli, VI duke of Monteleón. The ducal title of Monteleone (later Hispanicised as Monteleón) was granted by Charles V on 29 March 1527. When the palace became an artillery park (1807) and the site was built up after its demolition (1869), the new street inherited the building’s name.

The name was born of some dukes. On the outskirts of the Maravillas quarter, the dukes of Monteleón and Terranova had a country house that around 1690 Ettore Pignatelli and Juana de Aragón y Cortés tore down to raise a Baroque palace attributed to José de Churriguera. It occupied some 54,000 square metres; its staircase was compared to the Escorial’s. The palace changed its role in 1803, when the State bought it to install the Royal Military Museum. On 2 May 1808 this artillery park became the heart of the uprising against Napoleon’s troops: captains Daoíz and Velarde disobeyed their orders, handed out weapons to the people and held out until the French cannon prevailed. Both died. Little survived of the compound but the entrance arch, today in the Plaza del Dos de Mayo. In 1868 the council developed the area and named the streets after the protagonists of 2 May. Calle de Monteleón was opened in 1869 over the palace’s western flank and still cuts the quarter into two worlds: commercial and bustling towards Carranza, silent higher up.

Its names

  • Solar del palacio de MonteleónDocumentado from 1656
  • Palacio barroco de los duques de Monteleónc. 1690 – 1807
  • Real Museo Militar / Parque de Artillería de Monteleón1803 – 1844
  • Calle Peninsular (tramo Fuencarral – San Andrés)1869 – 1897
  • Calle de Monteleón1869 (tramo completo from 1897)
Sources (10)

Crossings