Calle del Codo

Barely seventy metres and a sharp turn are enough to explain the name. The street starts at the Plaza de la Villa, skirts the Torre de los Lujanes and, before reaching the Plaza del Conde de Miranda, bends almost at a right angle. That kink, like a flexed arm, gave it its name, and the street sign shows it with a medieval armoured arm folded at the codo (elbow). The layout is one of the few in Madrid that keeps its medieval course almost intact, and it is often called the narrowest street in the city. Its narrowness and gloom made it a favourite setting for sword duels after dark; Pérez-Reverte chose it for one of Captain Alatriste’s escapades. And Quevedo is said to have used it as a urinal on his way back from the taverns. A fed-up neighbour painted a cross with the warning “one does not piss where there is a cross”, to which the poet replied: “one does not put a cross where one pisses”.