Calle del Cid
The street takes its name from Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1048–1099), the Castilian warlord known as El Cid Campeador. It was opened in 1862 over the orchards of the Augustinian Recollect convent, demolished in 1837 after the Mendizábal disentailment. It links Calle de Recoletos with Calle de Villanueva, in the Recoletos neighbourhood of the Salamanca district.
The ground where the calle del Cid now runs was for centuries the orchard of the Augustinian Recollect convent, founded in 1592. The building fell after the disentailment, when Mendizábal bought the land in 1837.
In 1862 the calle del Cid was laid out over the old orchards alongside Villalar, Gil de Santivañes and Recoletos. Short and shady, the street once housed the headquarters of the National Printing Office, a surprising fact for so discreet a lane.
The name honours Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1048–1099), who conquered Valencia in 1094. His nickname comes from the Arabic al-Sayyid, “the lord”; the other, Campeador, from the Latin campi doctor, “master of the battlefield.” The figure was fixed in the Cantar de mio Cid, the oldest surviving Castilian epic poem.
Sources (6)
- Calle del Cid — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- Répide, Pedro de: Las calles de Madrid (La Librería, 2011)
- Gea, María Isabel: Los nombres de las calles de Madrid (La Librería, 2009)
- Calle del Cid — Callejero oficial del Ayuntamiento de Madrid (Wikidata Q52665136)
- Convento de los Agustinos Recoletos (Madrid) — Wikipedia
- Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre