Calle de Sevilla

Sol

Boundary between Sol / Cortes

Named after the Andalusian city, a name it received in the 19th century when the area was cleaned up and widened. It was earlier called de los Panaderos and then Ancha de los Peligros, after the convent of the Bernardine nuns of the Virgin of Perils.

A few steps from Puerta del Sol, this short street links plaza de Canalejas with calle de Alcalá. It was once called Ancha de los Peligros, and there the trouble began: a step away stood calle de la Virgen de los Peligros, and Madrilenians confused the two hopelessly. To undo the tangle, the great 19th-century urban overhaul championed by Mesonero Romanos and Fernández de los Ríos sought another name. They chose calle de Sevilla, though the chronicles do not explain why that Andalusian city and not another. Over the years it gained prestige, with buildings such as La Equitativa (1891) and the headquarters of Banco Hispano Americano, which dressed in monumental banking architecture a stretch a tourist today crosses barely noticing its past.

Its names

  • Calle de los Panaderos17th century–h.1800
  • Calle Ancha de los Peligrosh.1800–h.1878
  • Calle de Sevillah.1878–actualidad
Sources (8)

Crossings