Calle de Noblejas

Los Austrias·Palacio

The name commemorates the houses that the counts of Noblejas owned in block 437 of the San Gil quarter, next to the Royal Alcázar. The county of Noblejas⁠—⁠a Toledo town⁠—⁠was granted by Charles II in 1693 to Francisco Antonio de Herrera de la Concha. The street took the family’s name, its urban palace marking the stretch between the plazuela de Rebeque and the convent of San Gil. The original street disappeared between 1809 and 1811 with the demolitions ordered by Joseph Bonaparte to clear the front of the Royal Palace; the current street, between calle de San Nicolás and calle de Rebeque, is a later layout that perpetuates the vanished street’s name.

Next to the Alcázar stood the San Gil quarter, one of the most aristocratic corners of 16th- and 17th-century Madrid. In the block the maps numbered 437, the great house of the counts of Noblejas took up almost all the space, beside the plazuela de Rebeque. Texeira’s 1656 map draws it in its place. The name survives today thanks to a destruction. Between 1809 and 1811, during the French occupation, Joseph I and his architect Juan de Villanueva wiped ten whole blocks and a dozen streets off the map to open space around the Royal Palace. The Noblejas houses fell, along with other illustrious names, and with them the Antigua de Noblejas, the plazuela de Rebeque and the streets of San Gil and del Tufo. When the quarter was rebuilt, the council laid out a short new street between San Nicolás and Rebeque, and gave it back the Noblejas name so the toponym would not be lost entirely. That replacement street still stands, a few metres from the Royal Palace that caused its disappearance.

Its names

  • Calle de Noblejas (original)anterior a 1656 — 1809/1811
  • Antigua de Noblejas1809/1811
  • Calle de Noblejas (actual)19th century — actualidad
Sources (7)

Crossings