Calle de Pilar de Zaragoza
The street takes its name from the invocation of the Virgin of the Pillar, patron of Aragon, whose devotion took root in La Guindalera thanks to the Aragonese community that settled the neighborhood from the 1870s. Residents drove the building of Madrid’s first church under that invocation, inaugurated on 12 October 1883 on the block that borders the street.
In the early 1870s, Aragonese market gardeners and farmers began to settle La Guindalera, a shantytown on the northeastern edge of the Ensanche. Among them lived Gregoria Jimeno, who nailed an image of the Virgin of the Pillar above her doorway. Since the neighborhood had no church, residents gathered before that image on feast days to pray.
Jimeno rallied people to raise money for a church. The architect Juan Bautista Lázaro drew the plans and directed the work without pay. With the funds gathered among the neighbors and a donation from the Royal Household, the church opened on 12 October 1883 on the block bordered by José Picón, Pilar de Zaragoza and Botánica.
The original church burned during the Civil War, and the parish moved into its present home at Juan Bravo 40 in 1962. In 2009 the stretch between plaza de San Cayetano and calle de Coslada was pedestrianized.
Sources (5)
- Historias matritenses: Parroquia Nuestra Señora del Pilar - La Guindalera – Prosperidad
- Noticias de la Prospe: Antigua iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Pilar en Prosperidad
- La Guindalera demolida — Urban Idade
- Colonia Nuestra Señora del Pilar — Wikipedia
- Martín de los Heros y Pilar de Zaragoza serán peatonales — Ayuntamiento de Madrid