Calle del Desengaño

There was a time when Calle del Desengaño was far longer than it is now: it ran down from Valverde to Fuencarral. The opening of the Gran Vía and the Telefónica headquarters swallowed its stretches, and of that long street little more than two hundred metres remain. Through the 17th century the neighbourhood was convent territory, nearly all erased by the 1836 disentailment. At number 1 Francisco de Goya lived from 1779 to 1800; there his wife died and his son Javier was born, and in the perfumery below the Caprichos were sold in 1799 at 320 reales the set, though only 27 sold before the painter withdrew the edition for fear of the Inquisition. The street saw everything: the assault on General Narváez’s carriage in 1843 and, in 1871, the passage of the Cuban José Martí, freshly deported, who lodged at number 10 and there wrote El presidio político en Cuba. A plaque recalls his stay.