Calle Paravicino
It recalls Friar Hortensio Félix Paravicino, royal preacher and Madrid-born poet of the Golden Age, whom El Greco painted.
Behind the sign stands Hortensio Félix Paravicino (1580-1633), a Trinitarian friar born in Madrid and one of the most celebrated voices of the Golden Age. He preached with such fiery eloquence that Philip III and Philip IV named him royal preacher, in an ornate style that placed him near Lope de Vega’s circle.
His most lasting mark, however, was left not by his own pen but by another’s brush. El Greco painted him around 1609 — the canvas now hangs in Boston — young, one long hand resting on a book, with a gaze that still questions anyone who pauses before it.
Calle Paravicino is a short stretch in Bellas Vistas, barely ninety meters, lending this working-class Tetuán neighborhood the name of a friar who preached before kings.