Calle de la Virgen de los Peligros
For a Marian image, the Virgin of the Perils (Virgen de los Peligros), venerated in the convent of Cistercian nuns of Our Lady of Piety — the convent of Vallecas — that occupied this stretch. The name ‘Peligros’ is recorded from the 17th century; the form Virgen de los Peligros was fixed in 1865.
An image of the Virgin travelled to Madrid around the 16th century in the hands of a captive who had just regained his freedom in North Africa, and brought it back as a gift. That carving from captivity ended up naming the street.
The epithet “de los Peligros” (of the Perils) comes from a pious legend. A mother is said to have seen her daughter fall into a well and, in her fright, called on the Virgin; the girl came out of the water without a scratch. From that rescue came the dedication that still names the street.
A convent of Bernardine nuns once stood here. In 1836 Mendizábal included it in the disentailment, and later the building fell to the pickaxe to widen the way. In 1865 the street came to be called Virgen de los Peligros. The community and its shrine survive, though no longer here: they moved to the calle de Joaquín Costa.
Its names
- Callejón trasero del convento de Nuestra Señora de la Piedad (sin denominación fija)h.1556
- Calle Angosta de Peligros1656
- Calle Angosta de los Peligrosh.1769–1864
- Calle Peligros1865
- Calle de la Virgen de los Peligrosh.1939–1945
Sources (6)
- Calle de la Virgen de los Peligros — Wikipedia
- Peligros — Alfa y Omega (historia del convento y la devoción)
- Monasterio de la Piedad Bernarda de Madrid vulgo Las Vallecas — Escurialensia (artículo académico)
- Convento de las Monjas Vallecas — Wikipedia
- Calle de la Virgen de los Peligros — Madripedia
- Peñasco de la Puente, H. y Cambronero, C., Las calles de Madrid (1889) — Fernando Durán