Plaza de Isabel II

Plaza de Isabel II, though few in Madrid call it that: to almost everyone it is Plaza de Ópera, after the opera house that presides over it. But before queens and operas, a stream ran down here through a sandy ravine full of tanneries and washing places. A fountain built around 1565 poured water from seven spouts and named the site: the Caños del Peral. In 1738 the Teatro de los Caños del Peral opened on these plots, for decades the only Italian opera stage in Madrid, until decay condemned it and the wrecking crews finished it off in 1818. Ferdinand VII wanted to raise a great opera house there, but the work dragged on for thirty years; already reigning, Isabella II lost patience and demanded it be finished in six months. The Teatro Real opened on 19 November 1850, the queen’s birthday, and fixed the square’s name. That “forever” did not last: the square changed names with every political turn, and its statue was torn down and smashed in 1931. The most astonishing thing resurfaced in 1991, when digging the Ópera metro station uncovered twenty-five metres of the old Caños del Peral fountain beneath the platform, now turned into a museum inside the station.