Plaza del Conde de Barajas

The plot where the square opens today bore the Zapata surname from the first third of the 15th century. Ruy Sánchez Zapata the Elder, who reached Castile in the retinue of Leonor of Aragon, set his house where it mattered most: against the wall, beside the Puerta de Guadalajara and a stone’s throw from the town Council. He finished the palace in 1430, and the house entered an entail passed down for generations. The title that names the square came on 1 October 1572, when Philip II made Francisco Zapata y Cisneros the 1st Count of Barajas. He rose dizzyingly to preside over the Council of Castile, but his fall has the flavour of a palace tale: in 1591 the king’s confessor refused to absolve Philip II while the count remained in office, and the pressure forced him to resign. The square holds surprises for anyone who reads the façades: no. 3 was the home of María Zambrano between 1931 and 1936. Since 1984, on Sundays a painters' market sets up here that has earned it the nickname “the Madrid Montmartre.”