Calle del Ave María

Before it was called this, the street was named Calle del Barranco (Gully Street), and the name fooled no one: a seasonal watercourse ran down here. The calle del Ave María runs downhill from calle de la Magdalena to the plaza de Lavapiés, in the heart of the Embajadores district. The change of name has a less pious story than it seems. In the early 17th century this stretch held official brothels and houses of ill repute. When the expulsion of the Moriscos emptied whole blocks, the city council refounded the housing and renamed it with Marian titles and theological virtues. Hence nearby names like Fe (Faith), Esperanza (Hope) and Amor de Dios (Love of God). This one got the Ave María, from the congregation the friar Simón de Rojas founded around 1611. It is said that he drove the prostitutes from the street, and that this is why one of the adjoining streets is still called calle de San Simón. This street was enough for Galdós to open the fourth part of Fortunata y Jacinta: here he set doña Lupe “de los pavos” living. A rough neighbourhood for centuries, the street keeps the working-class pulse of Lavapiés in its name and its slope.