Plaza de San Cayetano

The saint who gives this square its name was born a son of the counts of Thiene, studied law in Padua and was ordained a priest in 1516. Eight years later he founded, together with Giampietro Caraffa and others, the Order of Clerics Regular. Caraffa would end up as pope under the name Paul IV, but earlier he had been bishop of Chieti, the ancient Teate, and from that office came the order’s nickname: the Theatines. The mark of that order reached Madrid through Father Plácido Mirto, who in 1644 built a Theatine house on calle de Embajadores. On that same spot, in 1669, work began on the church of San Millán y San Cayetano, designed by Marcos López and shaped by hands that tradition attributes to José de Churriguera and Pedro de Ribera. The work stretched almost a century, until 1761. The plaza de San Cayetano that now bears his name lies far from that church, in the Guindalera neighbourhood, an area that began to be built up in the mid-19th century. Beside it stands the La Guindalera Municipal Market. No record survives of the exact date it was given this name.