Subterráneo de Princesa a Santa Cruz de Marcenado

Few streets in Madrid are born underground. This is one of them. The underpass piercing the Edificio Princesa, joining Calle de la Princesa with Calle de Santa Cruz de Marcenado beneath the ground, appears in the street register under a name that reads like a traffic sign: Subterráneo de Princesa a Santa Cruz de Marcenado. The plot gathered improbable owners before sinking under concrete: the Tribunal of the Inquisition and, from 1857, the Hospital de la Princesa ordered built by Isabella II. The wrecking ball finished it off in the 1950s, and Fernando Higueras and Antonio Miró raised here, between 1967 and 1975, two blocks of military housing with four underground parking levels that breathe through large circular courtyards. The name honors the 3rd Marquis of Santa Cruz de Marcenado, Álvaro de Navia Osorio (1684–1732), soldier and theorist whose Military Reflections circulated across Europe; Napoleon is said to have copied passages from them. He died beheaded near Oran while going to the aid of an isolated Spanish detachment.