Calle del Espino

Lavapiés·Embajadores

The name comes from a solitary hawthorn (espino) that remained standing in front of a hermitage dedicated to the Virgin of El Pilar when the first houses of the area were built. Before it was developed, the zone was the edge of a ravine down which ran a stream flanked by hawthorns, brambles and undergrowth. When the ground was cleared for building, the only plant left standing was that hawthorn in front of the small shrine, and the street took its name from it.

Before there were cobblestones here, there was a ravine full of undergrowth and hawthorns. It separated the poor quarter of Lavapiés from what is now Glorieta de Embajadores, and from those thorny bushes Calle del Espino took its name; today it links Calle de Provisiones with Calle de Miguel Servet. The ravine appears as Barranco de Lavapiés on the 1769 map. It was filled in in 1822, and Calle de Miguel Servet now runs along its course. It is said that at the end of the street, in front of a hermitage to the Virgin of El Pilar, the hawthorn that named the street was still standing when the first blocks began to go up. Then there is the corrala. In the late 18th century one was built between this street and Calle de Mesón de Paredes, with entrances on both, and it is reckoned one of the oldest in Madrid. It was inhabited mainly by cigarette-makers from the Royal Tobacco Factory. Residents halted its demolition in the 1970s, and it still stands.

Its names

  • Calle del Espino17th century - actualidad
Sources (8)

Crossings