Calle del Doctor Cortezo

Doctor Cortezo did not exist until a convent fell. In 1562 Philip II founded that of the Trinidad Calzada between Atocha, Relatores and today’s Plaza de Jacinto Benavente, a large and illustrious complex that once hung canvases by El Greco, Zurbarán and Goya. The 1836 disentailment left it empty, and half the country’s culture passed through its halls — the National Library, the Museo de la Trinidad — before it was demolished entirely. On that plot the street was born, first named Calle Nueva de la Trinidad. In 1925 the City Council renamed it in honour of Carlos María Cortezo, still living, one of the architects of Spanish public health: he created the Serum Therapy Institute with Cajal at its head and, in 1904, established the first public health network of the modern state. The plot of the old convent filled with lights and spectacle: the Cine Ideal, the Teatro Calderón, the Teatro Fígaro and the rare Frontón Madrid, where the raquetistas played — women pelota players with no equivalent in any other fronton in the world.