Costanilla de los Capuchinos

The Costanilla de los Capuchinos climbs from Plaza de Pedro Zerolo to Calle de San Marcos, in the Justicia district. Its layout already appears, unnamed, on Teixeira’s map of 1656, and Espinosa named it in writing in 1769. The name comes from a Capuchin convent built over a dark episode. In 1630 the Inquisition tried a family of Portuguese converted Jews from Calle de las Infantas, accusing them of desecrating an image of Christ. After the auto-da-fé of 1632 in the Plaza Mayor, Queen Elisabeth of Bourbon ordered a convent raised on their site as a memorial. For its chapel, Francisco Rizi painted a series of canvases now hanging in the Prado. The disentailment closed the convent around 1837 and the site became a square that changed names restlessly: Bilbao, Ruiz Zorrilla, Vázquez de Mella and, since 2016, Pedro Zerolo. The lane, however, kept the memory of the friars. The story of the crucifix should be read with caution: it served as Inquisition propaganda and no source outside the Holy Office confirms it.