Calle de Cedaceros

Before industrial screens, someone had to make sieves by hand: wooden hoops with a taut cloth or mesh bottom for sifting flour, grain or plaster. A handful of craftsmen lived by that trade on this street, and it took its name from them. Their workshops also turned out bellows, buckets and the dry measures used to weigh grain. The name is very old. It already appears on the maps of Teixeira (1656) and Espinosa (1769), alongside other streets named after their guilds: Curtidores, Bordadores, Latoneros. Madrid could then be read as a directory of trades written across its street map. There was an interlude: in 1895 it became Nicolás María Rivero, in honour of the politician and mayor. The tribute lasted less than half a century; in 1943 the street was given back its old name.