Plaza de Callao

Sol

The name commemorates the naval battle of 2 May 1866 in the Peruvian port of Callao, where the Spanish Pacific squadron under Admiral Casto Méndez Núñez attacked the Peruvian coastal batteries. Madrid’s council chose the new name on 13 June 1866, weeks after the battle, replacing the earlier name Plaza de San Jacinto.

The plot the square occupies today was created in the mid-nineteenth century, when a block of housing was demolished in the old San Martín suburb. Before Gran Vía transformed everything, this was a discreet corner onto which the Callejón de San Jacinto opened, which Pedro de Répide described as “a squalid alley, more than a street”. Its present dimensions come from the opening of the second stretch of Gran Vía, between 1917 and 1927. The square became the visual climax of the new avenue and gathered the buildings that define its profile: the Callao Cinema (1926), the Palacio de la Prensa (1928) and the Capitol building (1933). Between 2009 and 2010 it was fully pedestrianised.

Its names

  • Postigo de la cerca de Felipe II16th-17th centuries
  • Plaza de San Jacintomediados 19th century – 1866
  • Plaza del Callao1866 – actualidad
Sources (9)

Crossings