Calle del Olivar

Lavapiés·Embajadores

The street takes its name from the large olive grove that covered the upper slope of Lavapiés before it was built up. The olive cultivation stretched from the hillside down to the sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de Atocha and gave its name to the wayside shrine of the Cristo de la Oliva that presided over the end of the town’s Way of the Cross. As the town grew, houses took over the grove until it disappeared.

Before Madrid climbed this hill, there was an olive grove here. Calle del Olivar runs down from calle de la Magdalena to plaza de Lavapiés, and its name keeps the memory of those trees that separated the old San Sebastián quarter from the area then called Avapiés. At the heart of the grove stood a wayside shrine with a much-loved image, the Cristo de la Oliva. It is said that in 1564 someone desecrated it and set fire to the shrine; Philip II ordered it restored and it was carried in procession to the Atocha convent. Houses gradually pushed out the olive trees: one of the first ended up owned by the Congregation of San Pedro de los Naturales, with part of the estate of Calderón de la Barca. The corner keeps a literary echo. In Misericordia, Galdós used the nearby Oratory of El Olivar as the setting for Madrid’s poverty and charity, where the character Benina goes to beg. And an unexpected resident: a 2014 study documented that Diego Velázquez, painter to Philip IV, bought land on this very street.

Its names

  • Olivar de Atocha / humilladero del Cristo de la OlivaAnterior a 1564 — primera mitad del 16th century
  • Primer tramo edificado sobre el olivarSiglo 16th — segunda mitad
  • Calle del OlivarSiglo 17th — consolidación del nombre
Sources (12)

Crossings