Carrera de San Jerónimo

Las Cortes·Cortes

Named in the early 16th century, this was the road that linked the Puerta del Sol with the Monastery of San Jerónimo el Real, founded by the Catholic Monarchs in 1503 for the Hieronymite friars. In old Castilian a “carrera” was a main road, a way for carts. The route grew in importance under the Habsburgs, who used it to reach the Buen Retiro Palace. It bore other names over the centuries, including “Camino del Sol”, before the name of Saint Jerome returned around 1840.

The name recalls where the road went, not how it ran. In old Castilian a carrera was a main thoroughfare wide enough for carts; this one dropped from the Puerta del Sol to the Monastery of San Jerónimo el Real, which the Catholic Monarchs founded in 1503 for the Hieronymite friars. The street took the name of the monastery at its end. Under the Habsburgs it was the way up to the Buen Retiro Palace, and its start at the Sol earned it the popular name Calle del Sol. The sign wavered —⁠two years as Calle del General Zayas, three more as Calle de Antonio Coll during the Civil War⁠— but the saint always came back. Today it is the short, solemn slope running down from Sol to the Prado, parliament on one side and the centuries on the other.

Its names

  • Carrera de San Jerónimoh.1503–16th century
  • Calle del Sol / Camino del Solh. 17th century–h.1840
  • Calle del General Zayas1843–1845
  • Carrera de San Jerónimoh.1840–1936
  • Calle de Antonio Coll1936–1939
  • Carrera de San Jerónimo1939–actualidad
Sources (8)

Crossings