Calle de San Gabriel

The archangel who gives this street its name is heaven’s messenger. Gabriel, from the Hebrew gəḇrīʾēl, is usually read as “strength of God.” Iconography linked him to the Annunciation, kneeling before Mary with word of the incarnation, and hence his fame as the angel of good news. The Calle de San Gabriel opens on the edge of Vallehermoso, near the Paseo de San Francisco de Sales, within the set of streets Madrid dedicated to the archangels. The municipal register lists it as a private street, an unusual label indicating private ownership. It is a short street, barely a passage, just enough to carry the archangel’s name without a church to back it.