Túnel de Mariano de Cavia
The tunnel takes its name from Plaza de Mariano de Cavia, beneath which it runs, and the square recalls the Zaragoza-born journalist and writer Mariano Francisco de Cavia y Lac (1855–1920), who died on 14 July 1920 in the sanatorium of Doctor León, located on that very site. The underpass, opened on 17 May 1965 as the first of its kind in the city, connects Paseo de la Reina Cristina with Avenida del Mediterráneo beneath the square already named in the journalist’s honor.
Mariano Francisco de Cavia y Lac (Zaragoza, 1855 – Madrid, 1920) was in his day the most widely read columnist in the Spanish press, with a recognizable byline in El Liberal, El Imparcial and El Sol. Of all his work, none is remembered like the piece he published in 1891: “The Fire at the Prado Museum,” an invented account of the gallery’s destruction that caused such alarm that the authorities ended up reviewing the museum’s protection systems. He also gave the language a common word: in 1908 he proposed rendering the English football as balompié.
As his paralysis worsened, he was moved to the sanatorium of Doctor León in Madrid, built on the square that now bears his name, and there he died.
The Túnel de Mariano de Cavia opened to traffic on 17 May 1965. With two lanes in each direction, it was the first underpass beneath a square built in Madrid, and set the pattern for those that followed across the city.