Calle de Santa Polonia

Saint Apollonia died a martyr in Alexandria during the third century. Her teeth were broken before she was killed, and from that martyrdom comes her patronage of dentists and of anyone suffering a toothache. Centuries later, on this street, Dr. Gregorio López Madera, physician to Philip II, kept an image of her in the doorway of his house. The patients who came to his practice commended themselves to her before crossing the threshold. From that small shrine the street took its name, which speech gradually wore down to Santa Polonia, without the initial a.