Plaza de Santa Catalina de los Donados

San Martín·Sol

The square takes its name from the hospital-almshouse of Santa Catalina de los Donados, founded in 1460 by Pedro Fernández de Lorca, treasurer to John II and later secretary to Henry IV, on his own land at the end of the Arenal. The term “donados” referred to the twelve old men taken in, who wore the habit of those who had entered a religious order without taking full vows.

The name begins with an act of charity. Pedro Fernández de Lorca gave over this site to raise a shelter that took in twelve old craftsmen who could no longer earn their keep. Life there ran with an almost monastic discipline: each day they recited thirty-three responsories for the soul of the founder. Their appearance stopped anyone who crossed here. They wore brown smocks, blue sashes, a broad-brimmed hat and a staff, their hair in powdered curls, like a small brotherhood of uniformed old men. Later the house changed its calling: in 1856 it became a hospital for the blind, and in 1889 the establishment moved to Carabanchel. The original building fell on Christmas Eve 1893. The Plaza de Santa Catalina de los Donados keeps the full original name intact, while the neighbouring street shortened it in 1835 to just de los Donados.
Pedro Fernández de Lorca had had a sumptuous mausoleum built for himself in the chapel of Santa Catalina in the church of San Jerónimo el Real; the tomb was destroyed during the French invasion of 1808.

Its names

  • Calle de Santa Catalina de los Donados1460 – c. 1835
  • Plaza de Santa Catalina de los Donadosc. 1835 – 19th century (interrupción)
Sources (7)

Crossings