Plaza de Celenque

Sol

The square takes its name from the entailed estate of Juan de Córdoba y Zelenque (also spelled Celenque), a fifteenth-century knight who lived here and served as warden of the Royal House of El Pardo under Henry IV and the Catholic Monarchs. The owner’s surname, shortened, ended up naming the space.

Plaza de Celenque opens like a breathing space at the end of Calle del Maestro Victoria, hard against the enclosure of the Descalzas Reales convent. Whoever crosses it today treads a narrower space than in the Golden Age: Texeira’s 1656 map shows it far roomier, proof of how the city ate away at it. The name comes from Juan de Córdoba y Zelenque, a fifteenth-century knight who lived here and was warden of the Royal House of El Pardo. His surname, shortened, ended up naming the place. The plot later saw a parade of owners that reads like a book of the nobility, and in 1713 Philip V granted the neighbouring property to house the Monte de Piedad pawnshop; for decades the main entrance of the Caja de Madrid bank was right here. The square was never meant as a destination but as a threshold. It still does what it always has: linking the commercial bustle of Arenal with the silence of the Descalzas convent.

Its names

  • Plazuela de Don Juan de Córdoba15th century – 17th century (aprox.)
  • Plaçuela de Selenque1656 (plano de Texeira)
  • Plazuela de Zelenque / Celenque18th century – 19th century
  • Plaza de Celenque / Plaza del Celenque19th century – actualidad
Sources (8)

Crossings