Calle de San Ildefonso

Lavapiés·Embajadores

The street takes its name from an image of Saint Ildefonsus venerated in the oratory of the estate beyond the walls of Cardinal Gaspar de Quiroga y Vela (1512-1594), Archbishop of Toledo and Inquisitor General. The mechanism is identical to that of the neighbouring Calle de San Eugenio: both streets arose on land that had belonged to that prelate and kept as place-names the devotional titles of his private chapel. Saint Ildefonsus (607-667), nephew of Saint Eugene III of Toledo and disciple of Saint Isidore of Seville, was Archbishop of Toledo from 657 to 667 and a Doctor of the Church, especially venerated for his defence of the virginity of Mary.

In the second half of the 16th century, Gaspar de Quiroga was Archbishop of Toledo, Inquisitor General and cardinal under Philip II, and kept a country estate beyond the walls right where the General Hospital would later rise. The chapel of that estate held images of two Toledan saints: Saint Eugene and his nephew Saint Ildefonsus, who held the episcopal seat until his death in the year 667. From that oratory came the names of two neighbouring streets. They are, in the end, two saints whom chance and a cardinal’s devotion transplanted from a vanished chapel into the street map. Saint Ildefonsus is no ordinary name in Madrid’s tradition. On the night of 18 December in the year 665, it is said, while he prayed with his clergy, the Virgin appeared to him seated in the episcopal chair and handed him a chasuble. The image of the saint receiving the garment from Mary filled altarpieces for centuries. Today the street is a short, pedestrian, cobbled lane, part of a small devotional axis —⁠San Eugenio, San Ildefonso, Santa Inés⁠— that marks the character of this corner of Lavapiés.

Its names

  • Calle de San Ildefonso17th century – actualidad
Sources (6)

Crossings