Calle del Doctor Fourquet

Lavapiés·Embajadores

The street received its name in 1871 from Juan Fourquet y Muñoz (Madrid, 1807–1865), anatomist and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Madrid, inventor of a corded horn and of instruments for breaking up urinary stones, whose Treatise of Anatomy was published posthumously by his disciple Julián Calleja (4 vols., 1869–1877). The oldest stretch of the street was called Calle de la Yedra (Ivy Street), a name Peñasco and Cambronero (1889) attribute to the ivy covering the estate of Cardinal Gaspar de Quiroga, Archbishop of Toledo (1577–1594), who used to rest there with his chaplains.

Before it had a doctor for a name, this street led nowhere. Its oldest stretch, running from Santa Isabel to Argumosa, already existed before the 17th century as a dead-end alley that hit the wall of the General Hospital, today the Reina Sofía Museum. Neighbours knew it for what it was: the calle Sin Salida (Dead-End Street). Later it became calle de la Yedra (Ivy Street), after the ivy covering an estate of Cardinal Gaspar de Quiroga. The second stretch was not opened until 1871. It was then that the city council joined the two parts and dedicated them to Juan Fourquet y Muñoz, a Madrid native with a French father. There is a coincidence the walker can check: Fourquet studied surgery at the Royal College of San Carlos, and that very building stands right opposite the street that bears his surname. He was among the first in Spain to examine disease under the microscope, devised a corded horn that anticipated the flexible stethoscope, and died of tuberculosis in 1865 without seeing most of his work in print. Since the late 20th century the story took another turn. The nearness of the Reina Sofía drew contemporary art galleries, and the old dead-end alley ended up one of the densest art corridors in Madrid.

Its names

  • Calle Sin Salidaanterior a 1650 (aprox.)
  • Calle de la Yedra17th century – 1871
  • Calle del Doctor Fourquet1871 – presente
Sources (10)

Crossings