Ribera de Curtidores

Hides were worked here. The street runs down almost parallel to the calle de Toledo, along which the cattle entered on their way to the slaughterhouses, and it took up the trade that came after the kill: tanning the leather. In 1495 Ferdinand and Isabella moved the tanners from the Caños del Peral to this slope, and the guild gave the street its name, which had earlier been the calle de las Tenerías. The merchant neighbourhood around it was born of the same activity. Dead animals were dragged from the slaughterhouse to the tanneries, leaving a trail of blood along the ground: that trail (rastro) ended up naming Madrid’s most famous market, of which the street is the backbone. Over the centuries came clothes dealers, cobblers and, from the nineteenth century, the antique sellers who set its character. Anyone walking down among the stalls on a Sunday today treads the same course where the hides were hauled five centuries ago.