Calle de Soler y González

Lavapiés·Embajadores

The name comes from the surnames of the two owners who in 1880 held the street’s only two properties, one on each side, since its short length left room for a single house per side. The earlier name, de la Pingarrona, was a popular one derived, in the most widespread account, from a woman so nicknamed who ran a wine stall on the street, though several authors find it more plausible that it comes from the surname Pingarrón, a family from Getafe documented in the area since the seventeenth century.

Between Calle de Jesús y María and Calle de la Espada, in the Embajadores district, runs a short, discreet street with a single property on each side. The city named it in 1880 with a trick of pure economy: since there were only two owners, facing each other, it planted both surnames together on the sign. No one wrote down their first names, so they remained forever two neighbours without a biography. But the neighbourhood called it something else: La Pingarrona. There are two stories about where it came from. The tastier one points to Juana, a woman who ran a wine stall there, famous for her height, her fierce temper, and her passion for dancing; she was always the first to break into dance before the shrine of the Cruz de Caravaca. The other, more believable, traces the name to the Pingarrón family, minor nobles from Getafe documented in the area since the seventeenth century. Here lived Luciano Francisco Comella, one of the most popular playwrights of his time, whom Leandro Fernández de Moratín mocked in La comedia nueva o el café. Box-office success did not save him from being fixed as a caricature for posterity.

Its names

  • Calle de la PingarronaAnterior a 1880 (documentado al menos from the 18th century)
  • Calle de Soler y GonzálezDesde 1880
Sources (6)

Crossings