Calle Preciados

Sol

The street takes the surname of two brothers, the Preciados, who in the late 15th century bought land from the monastery of San Martín and set up the town’s almotacén — the official post controlling weights and measures, which they held on lease. Their reputation for exactness and integrity stuck to the name of the place.

Preciados owes its name not to any notable, but to two brothers who made a living weighing bread. The street starts at the Puerta del Sol and climbs some five hundred meters to Santo Domingo, over former farmland of the monastery of San Martín. The Preciado brothers guarded the town’s royal weight: they inspected bakeries and salt stalls, fined those who tampered with the measures and had repeat offenders whipped. That firm hand won them such affection that the street kept their surname long after anyone remembered who they had been. In 1943 Pepín Fernández opened the Galerías Preciados here, Spain’s first modern department store. Pedestrianized in 1973 along with Calle del Carmen, it is today among the commercial streets with the most expensive rents in the world.

Its names

  • Cava del Arraval / Cava de la Puerta del Sol15th–16th centuries (documentado from 1438)
  • Calle de los Preciados / Calle de Preciados17th century en adelante (uso consolidado)
Sources (8)

Crossings