Calle de San Nicolás

Los Austrias·Palacio

The street takes its name from the church of San Nicolás de Bari, one of the ten founding parishes of the medieval town, already mentioned in the Charter of Madrid of 1202. Devotion to Saint Nicholas of Bari, bishop of Myra in the 4th century and patron of sailors and children, reached the peninsula with Carolingian piety and settled in this corner of the walled enclosure probably in the 12th century, when Mudéjar masters raised the tower that still stands.

This is one of Madrid’s oldest streets. It runs down from the calle Mayor toward the plaza de San Nicolás, bending without a straight line, following the shape of the first Christian quarter that grew north of the fortress. Pedro de Répide called this corner “the most remote Madrid”, and the Texeira map of 1656 already draws it under this name. On its western flank stood a palace of Andrés Cabrera and Beatriz de Bobadilla, Counts of Chinchón, trusted intimates of Isabella the Catholic; later it became a Veterans' barracks and seat of the Royal Corps of Halberdiers. The parish that lends the street its name led a troubled life: it lost its rank in 1805 for being in ruins, served as a store for French soldiers, regained it in 1842 and gave it up for good in 1891. Since 1825 it has been cared for by the Servite Third Order, which made it the heart of Madrid’s Italian community, a role it still holds today.

Its names

  • Calle de San Nicolás12th century–actualidad
Sources (9)

Crossings