Cuesta de San Vicente

Ópera·Palacio

The name comes from the Puerta de San Vicente, a monumental gate that closed Madrid’s western access towards the Manzanares river. The gate took that name from the image or statue of Saint Vincent —⁠most likely Saint Vincent Ferrer, the Valencian Dominican canonised in 1455⁠— that adorned the central arch of the structure built in 1726 by Pedro de Ribera. When the street’s naming was formalised in 1835, it had already been popularly called for decades after the gate that presided over it.

Cuesta de San Vicente descends from Plaza de España to the Paseo de la Florida, breaking at an obtuse angle, with the Montaña del Príncipe Pío to the north and the Campo del Moro to the south. Charles III turned it into an urban street between 1767 and 1777, seeking better access to the Royal Palace. The work tore down Pedro de Ribera’s monumental gate (1726), and Francesco Sabatini raised another in 1775, with a central arch, Doric columns and military trophies. The first stretch skirted the Royal Stables, which housed as many as five hundred horses and are today the Jardines de Sabatini. When the Estación del Norte opened, the slope became the gateway into Madrid for those arriving by train. Sabatini’s gate was dismantled around 1890 and its stones were lost; in 1995 a replica was unveiled from plans kept in Paris and a photograph by Jean Laurent, assembled with its orientation reversed.

Its names

  • Camino del río17th century
  • Camino que sube al Palacio Nuevo18th century (antes de 1767)
  • Prado Nuevofinales 18th century - primera mitad 19th century
  • Cuesta de San Vicente1835-1939 y 1980-actualidad
  • Avenida de Onésimo Redondo1939-1980
Sources (10)

Crossings