Paseo de la Infanta Isabel

A walk that for centuries answered to two names without either taking hold as its single label: paseo de Atocha, for the road leading to the Marian shrine, and paseo de Invierno, which named the stretch between that shrine and the plaza del Emperador Carlos V. On January 1, 1931, the city council settled the matter and dedicated the street to Isabel de Borbón y Borbón, firstborn of Isabella II and twice Princess of Asturias. Her closeness to the city earned her the affectionate nickname “la Chata.” She died in Paris in April 1931, barely five days after exile took her from Spain. The name was ratified in 1940, this time so as not to clash with the calle de Atocha. Two major buildings rise along the walk. The Palacio de Fomento, now the seat of the Ministry of Agriculture, was designed by Ricardo Velázquez Bosco between 1893 and 1897. And the National Museum of Anthropology, the work of Francisco de Cubas, opened its doors at the hand of Alfonso XII in April 1875.