Plaza de la Villa de París

Where the Plaza de la Villa de París now opens, there was for over a century an orchard and a nuns' garden. In 1748 Queen Barbara of Braganza founded there the convent of the Salesas Reales, to have a retreat of her own should she be widowed and a pantheon for the founders. Fate came quickly: she died in 1758, a year after opening her work, and Ferdinand VI followed in 1759. Both were buried in the convent church, far from the Escorial. The convent fell with politics. In 1870 the nuns were evicted and the building became the Palace of Justice. Over the old garden new streets were opened, and the space left over was called Plaza del Palacio de Justicia. The present name came through diplomacy and, in passing, football. In October 1905 the French president Loubet visited Madrid; on the 23rd the first international match of the Madrid Foot-Ball Club was played, against the Gallia Club of Paris. The City Council renamed the square in honour of that Parisian visit.