Calle del Buen Suceso

Behind this name is an image of the Virgin and the devotion attached to it. Tradition links it to two nursing brothers who, on their way to Rome in the early 17th century, found a carving of the Virgin in a cave. They brought the story before Pope Paul V, who received the journey as a “good outcome” (buen suceso) and so named the devotion. Under that name the court hospital came to be known, founded by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1489 and later established beside the Puerta del Sol. That church marked Madrid life for centuries from a corner of Sol. On its façade hung a clock that served as the neighborhood’s timekeeper; when the building came down, the clock passed to the Casa de Correos. The reworking of the Puerta del Sol around 1854 doomed the old hospital. The devotion was not lost: a new church rose in the heart of Argüelles, and Calle del Buen Suceso, laid out beside it, inherited the name and carried it to this stretch that drops down to Paseo del Pintor Rosales, facing the Parque del Oeste.