PUERTA DEL SOL AND CALLE ARENAL, Calle Arenal 1

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....