Travesía de la Primavera

The Travesía de la Primavera is a passage of some 47 metres, narrow and sloping, linking calle del Ave María with calle de la Primavera, in Embajadores. It keeps the scale of the Madrid before the great expansion, that tight weave of alleys that survived the reforms. The name comes from an old festive custom. The neighbourhood remembered here a fountain among gardens where, back in the 17th century, the feast of the May Cross was held: before the water rose a tree laden with flowers, and around it the mayas danced. The spot had another nickname, the “Paseo de las Damas,” for the strollers of spring mornings. The main street took up that atmosphere and was named “de la Primavera”; when the adjoining alley gained its own name, it inherited that of its neighbour. For decades the life of the passage revolved around the Café Barbieri, opened in 1901 and in its present home since 1906, on the corner of Ave María and this same cross-street. Nearby stood the theatre that gave it its name, with a trick that left the audience open-mouthed: an iron-and-glass roof that opened to the sky in under five minutes. A fire ended it in 1927.

The Café de la Unión, opened in 1901 on Calle de la Primavera adjacent to the byway, was renamed in 1902 as Café Barbieri for its proximity to the Teatro Barbieri. In 1906 it moved to larger premises on Calle del Ave María, at the very corner with the Travesía de la Primavera, where it opened as Nuevo Café Barbieri. That place still preserves today its divans, the marble tables, the iron columns and the figure of the muse Erato presiding over the room, just as they were at its opening.