Paseo de la Reina Cristina
The walk was opened in the old Olivar de Atocha, south of the Retiro Park, during the area’s development in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It bears the name of María Cristina of Habsburg-Lorraine (1858–1929), second wife of Alfonso XII and regent of Spain between 1885 and 1902, until her son Alfonso XIII came of age. The name commemorates her institutional role as head of state during the Bourbon Restoration, not any physical tie of the queen to the place.
The Paseo de la Reina Cristina came into being as Madrid devoured the Olivar de Atocha, the vast olive grove that stretched south of the old Buen Retiro Palace. From that land would emerge the Pacífico neighborhood, which the walk closes off to the north. The development took up the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
The name pays tribute to María Cristina of Habsburg-Lorraine, an Austrian archduchess who in 1879 married Alfonso XII. Barely six years later she was widowed and regent: the king died in 1885 and she, pregnant with the future Alfonso XIII, took up the regency. She governed until 1902, upholding the party rotation of the Canovist system.
On the north flank of the walk rose in 1895 the María Cristina Barracks, the first in Madrid built on the system of the French engineer Tollet: instead of a single compact block, it spread the troops across eight isolated pavilions to fight overcrowding. The wrecking ball brought it down in 1970 to make room for housing.