Calle Monte de Piedad
The name refers to the Monte de Piedad of Madrid, a charitable institution founded in 1702 by the Aragonese priest Francisco Piquer Rodilla to offer loans without usury to the needy. The street, 72 metres long, lies in La Guindalera (28028) and borders the streets Alberto Martín Artajo and Conde de Elda.
On 13 January 1702 the Council of Castile approved the creation of the Monte de Piedad of Madrid, and that December Father Piquer deposited a silver real as founding capital, a symbolic gesture to set the institution going under a long and devout name: “Holy and Royal Monte de Piedad of the Blessed Souls of Purgatory.”
The idea came from Italy. The Monti di Pietà lent money to the poor against pledges, without the usury of moneylenders. Madrid copied that model, and Philip V sponsored the venture: in 1713 he bought a building facing the Descalzas Reales and handed it to Piquer as its seat.
Calle Monte de Piedad stands far from all that history, in La Guindalera, a neighbourhood built up across the turn of the 20th century. There is no record of a branch ever having stood there: the name honours the institution’s symbolic weight, like so many signs on the outskirts of Madrid.
Sources (7)
- Historia y curiosidades del Monte de Piedad de Madrid — Fundación Montemadrid
- Monte de piedad — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- Fundación Montemadrid — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- Capilla del Monte de Piedad de Madrid — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- El edificio del Monte de Piedad — FotoMadrid
- El Monte de Piedad de Madrid cumple 313 años — Presea
- Callejero oficial del Ayuntamiento de Madrid — Portal de datos abiertos