Paseo de Fernán Núñez

The Paseo de Fernán Núñez is the longest of all those that cross the Retiro from within. It runs through the park from the O’Donnell gate to the Cuesta de Claudio Moyano, following an old trace: the Mallo canal once ran here, dug between 1638 and 1639 to supply the Buen Retiro palace. Centuries later, that furrow became an avenue. It opened to traffic on October 22, 1874. The works came to around 110,000 pesetas, and half was put up out of pocket by a single man: Manuel Falcó, duke consort of Fernán Núñez. For those 50,000 he advanced, the city council decided to name the walk with his noble title. Whoever walks it today carries, without knowing it, the name of its patron. The present name was not the first. For decades people called it Paseo de Carruajes and, later, Paseo de Coches, because the vehicles touring the park passed along it. That ended in 1981, when motor traffic was banned. Since then its central stretch has kept one fixed yearly appointment: the stalls of the Madrid Book Fair are set up there.