Calle del Pozo

Between Calle de la Victoria and Calle de la Cruz, a few meters from Puerta del Sol, runs a short street that hides one of the strangest legends in central Madrid. The story goes that during the War of the Spanish Succession, Calvinist soldiers in the retinue of Archduke Charles sacked the Convent of La Victoria and threw two thorns from Christ’s crown into Viarte’s well. The water, bitter until then, turned sweet and gained a reputation for healing. Things changed the day the thorns reappeared in a neighbor’s bucket: the brackish taste returned and the well was eventually filled in. From that wellhead the name remained. Though the miraculous water vanished, the street lived on. At number 8, a bakery opened in 1810 that by around 1830 had become the Antigua Pastelería del Pozo, one of the oldest shops in the city.