PUERTA DEL SOL AND CALLE ARENAL, Calle Arenal 1
Language: English / USA
Calle Arenal was Madrid's main street in the nineteenth century, the so-called Elizabethan period.
Leave Plaza de Isabel II with the queen's statue behind you, and proceed down this pedestrian street which is less hectic than the nearby Calle Mayor. You're passing the bars and clubs that replaced the literary cafes of the late 1800s.
Now pause the audio and go to the corner of Calle Bordadores.
In the second half of the 1800s in exactly this spot, King Amadeo of Savoy was attacked, who was the son of the first king of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele. The king wasn't injured, but after a few months he decided to give up the throne of Spain anyways. The church you can see is Iglesia de San Ginés, and is one of the oldest in Madrid. It has a troubled history and has suffered two fires, one in the mid 1600s and the other at the beginning of the 19th century. Of the original church, the only part still standing is the chapel of the Congregación del Santísimo Cristo.
Opposite the church's facade, if you look towareds Calle San Martín you can catch a glimpse of the walls and door of the noble convent of cloistered nuns called Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in the distance, which is one of the most important religious points of Madrid.
Now pause the audio and go to Pasadizo de San Ginés.
After you've gone past the used books in their characteristic wooden houses covered with tiles, you've reached the picturesque Pasadizo de San Ginés. If you have a sweet tooth, go inside the famous Chocolatería San Ginés, which is always open for a cup of hot chocolate with a typical churros, which is a type of fried bread. After this narrow passage, you'll pass the suggestive facade of the Joy Eslava disco housed inside the ancient theater which in the eighties, during the "movida" night life movement, was a meeting place for actors, directors and musicians, some of which later became international stars, like Pedro Almodovar.
FUN FACT: you can see one of the most beautiful paintings of the great painter El Greco in San Ginés Church: it is called "Jesus drove the merchants from the temple".
