Travesía de la Comadre

In the heart of Embajadores, Travesía de la Comadre joins Calle del Amparo with Calle de Jesús y María, part of that maze of crooked alleys Texeira already drew in 1656. In 1835 it took the name of the larger street that crossed it: Calle de la Comadre de Granada, which in 1878 became del Amparo. The travesía kept the old name. The comadre was a midwife who came from Granada and practiced in the neighborhood under Philip IV. Chroniclers tell that she would place a bud of Alexandria rose in a flask of water before an image of the Virgin: if the bud opened while she attended the birth, the outcome would be happy. The flower floating in the water, opening little by little, like a clock of good omens. The travesía holds another forgotten name: in the 1930s it was called Emilio Mario, after the actor and director of the Teatro de la Comedia, until in 1941 it became the Comadre again.