Calle Gabriel Abreu

Blind from his first days of life, Gabriel Abreu Castaño trained as a musician and ended up inventing his own way of writing music. Born in Madrid in 1834, he studied at the National School for the Deaf and Blind and then at the Royal Conservatory, where he learned music theory, piano and tuning. In 1852 he returned to the School as a teacher and piano tuner. A few years later came his invention: a raised-relief system for writing music that expanded the dot cell to eight positions and allowed 256 combinations. A Royal Order of 1855 officially adopted it at the School itself, and the method remained in use until the mid-twentieth century. Abreu died in Madrid in 1881. Almost a quarter of a century later, in 1905, his name was placed over the old calle H in the San Dimas district. The street runs from calle Dolores Romero to the walls of the Fuente del Berro park.