Travesía del Arenal
The name comes from the seasonal stream that ran across the land before it was built up, whose dry summer bed formed a wide sandy stretch (arenal). That place-name gave the calle del Arenal its name, and the alley, opened in 1853 to link that street with the calle Mayor, took its name from the street it crosses.
The Travesía del Arenal exists mainly so that two other streets can join hands: a short alley in the Sol quarter linking the calle del Arenal with the calle Mayor. It was opened in 1853 with a modest task, stitching together two arteries of the old town.
Earlier it was called callejón de la Princesa, honouring the infanta Isabel, the future “Chata”. When the grand avenue in the Argüelles quarter was thought better suited to the name calle de la Princesa, the alley had to give up the title. The Second Republic renamed it Luis Díaz Cobeña until 1941, when it recovered its present name.
It was never a busy street. Its role has been reduced to that of a passage, with barely a discreet shop such as the Librería Gabriel Molina de los Bibliófilos Españoles, at number 1.
Its names
- Callejón de la Princesaant. 1853
- Travesía del Arenal1853
- Luis Díaz Cobeñac. 1930s
- Travesía del Arenal1941–actualidad
Sources (7)
- Travesía del Arenal — Madripedia
- Calle del Arenal — Wikipedia
- Por las calles de Madrid: Travesía del Arenal — Fotopaseo
- La muerte del conde de Villamediana — Cosas de Los Madriles
- Madrid sin prisas: Calle del Arenal
- Calle del Arenal, antiguo arrabal de San Ginés — Cosas de Los Madriles
- DÍAZ COBEÑA, Luis — Senado de España (ficha histórica)