Calle Mayor

Calle Mayor links the Puerta del Sol with the Cuesta de la Vega over just above 700 meters, almost flat and almost straight, crossing the Plaza de la Villa. When Madrid became the capital in 1561 it was already the town’s main axis: the Catholic Monarchs rode it as a triumphal route, and in the 17th century it filled with courtly finery. It served both trade and display. The guilds spread out along its stretches, and at its eastern head the convent of San Felipe el Real raised its famous Gradas, the busiest gossip spot of the court, where news and rumor ran each morning. Though from the 19th century it yielded commercial weight to Calle de Alcalá, it kept its institutional air around the Plaza de la Villa, the old core of the town government.