Callejón del Mellizo

Callejón del Mellizo links Calle de Mira el Río Baja with Calle de la Arganzuela, in Embajadores, a step away from the Rastro. It began as a cul-de-sac and only later opened right through the block. The name comes from a story told since the days of Philip IV. Two twin brothers owned land in this corner of the southern outskirts. One died, and the survivor made a trade of telling anyone who would listen the wonder of his birth: according to legend, the two came into the world during the transfer of a nun renowned for miracles, Sister Luisa de la Ascensión, who was said to have restored the milk of a mother too poor to nurse. The twin lived off that tale. He gathered donations, bought up property, and on his death left it all to the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament of the General Hospital. The alley kept his memory, though no document proves the gift.

The actor Emilio Mesejo, who gave the alley its name during the Second Republic, starred in the premiere of La Revoltosa at the Teatro Apolo in 1897, playing the Felipe who falls for Mari-Pepa. He spent twenty-four years at that theatre, more than any other comic actor of his generation, and died in Burgos in 1931. The neighbourhood where he lived and earned his fame is a stone’s throw from the alley that bore his name for a decade.