Barrio de La Latina (Madrid)

Last updated
Skyline of La Latina Real-Basilica-San-Francisco-el-Grande-Madrid.jpg
Skyline of La Latina

La Latina is a historic neighborhood in the Centro district of downtown Madrid, Spain. La Latina occupies the place of the oldest area in Madrid, the Islamic citadel inside the city walls, with narrow streets and large squares. It is administratively locked almost entirely within the district of Palacio in Centro. It was named after the old hospital, founded in 1499 by Beatriz Galindo "La Latina". It occupies a large part of what is known as El Madrid de los Austrias, and although its boundaries are subjective, it could be argued that it was essentially the vicinity of the carrera de San Francisco street - that continues from the Plaza de la Cebada up to the San Francisco el Grande Basilica. These limits are: to the north, Segovia street - a deep ravine formerly occupied by the San Pedro Stream which empties into the Manzanares River, to the south there is la Ronda and Puerta de Toledo, on the east there is Toledo street - bordering Rastro and the district of Lavapiés - and to the west, Bailen street.

Contents

Main facade of the San Francisco el Grande Basilica, Madrid, seen from the Carrera de San Francisco. Madrid - Basilica de San Francisco el Grande.jpg
Main façade of the San Francisco el Grande Basilica, Madrid, seen from the Carrera de San Francisco.
San Andres church Plaza e iglesia de San Andres.jpg
San Andrés church

History

La Latina occupies much of the oldest section of Madrid, sometimes referred to as El Madrid de los Austrias which maintains a peculiar urban layout similar to the medieval distribution, with spacious squares and narrow streets that follow the former course of creeks. As such, the effect is often that of a traditional pueblo rather than the heart of a major city. Its configuration overlaps almost perfectly with the first walled enclosures of the ninth-century fortress, Almudena - and that of the city - Medina - that surrounded it. [1] Its streets have felt the presence of all historical events that took place in Madrid in all periods, without losing its popular character. In this sense it can be said that La Latina constitutes a large part of the true historic center of Madrid.

Despite the remarkable survival of some ancient buildings - among which are some of the best examples of so-called "casas a la malicia" (malice houses) - the construction of the neighborhood is mostly nineteenth century on ancient plots of collapsed or downed buildings which maintain the urbanism of narrow and broken streets with large plazas. There are very typical buildings with large and numerous windows that sometimes constitute narrow wrought iron balconies, slightly protruding eaves with Arabic tiled roofing and coloured mortar façade. They consist of four or five floors, further divided into flats according to the increase in height, generally devoting the entire first floor to residence for the owner and the rest to rentals.

Similar to the rest of Madrid, the integration of new buildings is present, sometimes breaking the cityscape with their ten stories and exposed brick.

Particularly characteristic of this movement was the demolition of the old la Cebada market, opened in 1875 to replace and institutionalize open-air sale in La Plaza de la Cebada and to satisfy the new modernist taste. Health problems, lack of historical consciousness and mid-twentieth century aesthetics led to the demolition of the original market. A mid-twentieth century concrete structure boasting a great vaulted ceiling replaced it. There are currently unfunded plans for a modern market with roof-top public space to replace it. [2] Currently the city's draft amendment of the la Cebada market and attached sports facilities, [3] has been stalled due to financial problems facing the town hall. [4] [5]

The Plaza de la Cebada has functioned as a food market, usually wholesale, since the fifteenth century, occupying a large space outside the walls of the Puerta de Moros enabled for this purpose. City fairs were held there in the eighteenth century, and in the nineteenth century it bore witness to the executions of General Rafael de Riego, who was hanged, [6] and the bandit, Luis Candelas, by garrotte. [7] There is currently a local, community-based movement to revive the space as has occurred in other Madrid markets.

There is a historical explanation for the two Caves (Lower and Upper), currently two streets that run almost parallel filled with shops and entertainment venues. These originally marked the access holes dug under the wall that allowed access in and out of the citadel even with the doors closed. In the seventeenth century, merchants coming from different areas around Madrid to sell in the market stayed in inns, taverns and hostelries on these streets. Travellers and their horses stayed in facilities governed by their countrymen. These facilities grew in quality and services creating a leisure shopping framework tailored to these visitors with fresh money and little social control. Only some of these lodges and the entire orientation to leisure dining and tavern activities, among which include the Casa Lucio, La Soleá and many other traditional establishments in Madrid of maximum relevance of its kind, are still preserved.

Overview

In and around this area are the origins of Madrid. Its difficult to put precise boundaries on La Latina, because, like its immediate neighbors, streets are narrow and winding. There are quite a few nightlife spots, though the neighborhood is best known as having one of the best concentrations of tapas bars (particularly on the Cava Baja and Cava Alta). These tapas bars are most easily accessed by heading north-northeast from the Metro down Calle De Toledo, taking a left (west) on Calle de la Colegiata, and then making a second left, effectively doubling back slightly upon arrival. There are also a number of attractive churches, like the Iglesia de San Andres and the Iglesia de San Francisco el Grande.

On Sundays and major holidays, the Rastro flea market begins on the eastern edge of La Latina, spilling out of the San Millan exit of the La Latina metro stop to the Plaza de Cascorro all the way to the Ronda de Toledo to the south. Plaza de la Paja is another interesting and entertaining spot of this neighborhood.

On the other side, La Latina borders with Plaza Mayor and overlaps with the ancient part of the town, El Madrid de los Austrias, where the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) is located.

La Latina has developed a gay area [8] centered on Calle Calatrava, with many bars and some restaurants/tapas bars that cater to the community. The popular La Paloma festival in August is also very popular among the gay community and takes place along Calatrava and surrounding streets.

Transportation

La Latina is served by Metro Line 5 (Green) at two stops: La Latina and Puerta de Toledo as well as many buses. Because of its semi-pedestrian character, the price of metered parking, shortage of places to park, which is a really difficult endeavour especially on evenings and weekend nights and Sunday mornings, and the intensity of traffic at all hours - even at dawn on the days mentioned - public transportation is the most recommended and, as far as possible, walking.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puerta del Sol</span> Square in Madrid, Spain

The Puerta del Sol is a public square in Madrid, one of the best known and busiest places in the city. This is the centre of the radial network of Spanish roads. The square also contains the famous clock whose bells mark the traditional eating of the Twelve Grapes and the beginning of a new year. The New Year's celebration has been broadcast live since 31 December 1962 on major radio and television networks including Atresmedia and RTVE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arcos de la Frontera</span> Municipality in Andalusia, Spain

Arcos de la Frontera is a town and municipality in the Sierra de Cádiz comarca, province of Cádiz, in Andalusia, Spain. It is located on the northern, western and southern banks of the Guadalete river, which flows around three sides of the city under towering vertical cliffs, to Jerez and on to the Bay of Cádiz. The town commands a fine vista atop a sandstone ridge, from which the peak of San Cristóbal and the Guadalete Valley can be seen. The town gained its name by being the frontier of Spain's 13th-century battle with the Moors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centro (Madrid)</span> District of Madrid, Spain

Centro is a district of Madrid, Spain. It is approximately 5.23 km2 (2.02 sq mi) in size. It has a population of 149,718 people and a population density of 28,587 people/km2. It roughly corresponds to the bulk of the housing formerly enclosed by the so-called Walls of Philip IV. The district is made up of the neighbourhoods of Cortes, Embajadores, Justicia, Universidad, Palacio and Sol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Rastro</span> Open-air flea market in Madrid, Spain

El Rastro de Madrid or simply el Rastro is the most popular open air flea market in Madrid (Spain). It is held every Sunday and public holiday during the year and is located along Plaza de Cascorro and Ribera de Curtidores, between Calle Embajadores and the Ronda de Toledo.

Madrid, the capital of Spain, is divided into 21 districts, which are further subdivided into 131 administrative wards. Additional neighborhoods exist outside the boundaries of administrative borders. Each district is governed by a body named Junta Municipal de Distrito. Residents of Madrid are typically called Madrileños.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ciudad Colonial (Santo Domingo)</span> Historic district in Dominican Republic

Ciudad Colonial is the historic central neighborhood of the Dominican Republic's capital Santo Domingo. It is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the Americas. The area has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It is also known as Zona Colonial or more colloquially as "La Zona".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Cruz, Seville</span>

Santa Cruz, is the primary tourist neighborhood of Seville, Spain, and the former Jewish quarter of the medieval city. Santa Cruz is bordered by the Jardines de Murillo, the Real Alcázar, Calle Mateos Gago, and Calle Santa María La Blanca/San José. The neighbourhood is the location of many of Seville's oldest churches and is home to the Cathedral of Seville, including the converted minaret of the old Moorish mosque Giralda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calle de Alcalá</span> Historic street in Madrid, Spain

Calle de Alcalá is among the longest streets in Madrid. It starts at the Puerta del Sol and goes on for 11 kilometres (6.8 mi), to the northeastern outskirts of the city. Henry David Inglis described it in 1837 as "long, of superb width, and flanked by a splendid range of unequal buildings".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Latina (Madrid Metro)</span> Madrid Metro station

La Latina is a station of Line 5 of the Madrid Metro. It is located in the Barrio de La Latina, part of the district Centro, in fare Zone A.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convento de San Felipe el Real</span> Convent in Madrid, Spain

The now defunct Convento de San Felipe el Real was a former Madrilenian convent of Calced Augustinian monks, located at the beginning of Calle Mayor in Madrid, next to the Puerta del Sol. Built between 16th and 17th centuries, was rise on a large pedestal, was part of it a famous talking shop of the city. One of its famous guests was Friar Luis de León. It was opposite the Palacio de Oñate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walls of Madrid</span> Series of walls built around the city of Madrid, Spain

The Walls of Madrid are the five successive sets of walls that surrounded the city of Madrid from the Middle Ages until the end of the 19th century. Some of the walls had a defensive or military function, while others made it easy to tax goods entering the city. Towards the end of the 19th century the demographic explosion that came with the Industrial Revolution prompted urban expansion throughout Spain. Older walls were torn down to enable the expansion of the city under the grid plan of Carlos María de Castro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim Walls of Madrid</span> Cultural property in Madrid, Spain

The Muslim Walls of Madrid, of which some vestiges remain, are located in the Spanish capital city of Madrid. They are probably the oldest construction extant in the city. They were built in the 9th century, during the Muslim domination of the Iberian Peninsula, on a promontory next to Manzanares river. They were part of a fortress around which developed the urban nucleus of Madrid. They were declared an Artistic-Historic Monument in 1954.

The Walls del Arrabal were the third in a set of five walls built around Madrid, now the capital of Spain. There are no remaining ruins of the Walls del Arrabal, leaving some debate as to their extent and the period of their construction. It is possible that the walls were built as early as the 12th century, however they were most likely constructed in 1438. The walls may have been intended to protect people against the plagues that ravaged the city at the time. The walls united the urbanized suburbs of the city and prevented entry of the infected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walls of Philip II</span>

The Walls of Philip II were walls in the city of Madrid that Philip II, in 1566, constructed for fiscal and sanitary control. The walls enclosed an area of about 125 ha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convento de San Norberto</span>

The Convento de Premonstratenses de San Norberto, also known as Convento de Mostenses or Convento de San Norberto, named after the founder of the Premonstratensian Order, is a religious building that disappeared. It was located on the ground of the current Plaza de Los Mostenses, next to the Gran Vía of Madrid (Spain). It was founded in 1611 by the community of the Fathers Canons Premonstratensians with the permission of Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo Bernardo de Rojas and financed by a benefactor, the Count of Miranda, Juan of Zúñiga, the then president of the Council of Castile. Today the site of the convent is occupied by a market built in the 19th century, known as Mercado de Los Mostenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embajadores</span> Ward of Madrid in Spain

Embajadores is an administrative neighborhood (barrio) of Madrid, belonging to the Centro District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malasaña</span> Ward in Madrid

Malasaña is an area in the centre of Madrid, Spain. While it doesn't align with any specific administrative division, it is frequently associated with the Universidad neighborhood, the broader administrative district in which Malasaña is situated. The tourist information webpage from the Madrid City Council defines its boundaries as the streets of San Bernardo, the Gran Vía, Fuencarral and Carranza. Malasaña is associated with a creative and counter-cultural scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Town of Cáceres</span> Neighbourhood in Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain

Old Town of Cáceres is a historic walled city in Cáceres, Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calle de Toledo</span> Street in Madrid, Spain

The Calle de Toledo is a historic street in central Madrid, Spain, running across the Centro and Arganzuela districts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Puerta del Sol</span>

The history of the Puerta del Sol represents an essential part of the memory of the Villa de Madrid, not only because the Puerta del Sol is a point of frequent passage, but also because it constitutes the "center of gravity" of Madrid's urban planning. The square has been acquiring its character as a place of historical importance from its uncertain beginnings as a wide and impersonal street in the sixteenth century, to the descriptions of the first romantic travelers, the receptions of kings, popular rebellions, demonstrations, etc. It has been the scene of major events in the life of the city, from the struggle against the French invaders in 1808 to the proclamation of the Second Republic in 1931, and it has also retained its place as the protagonist of the custom of serving twelve grapes on New Year's Eve, to the sound of the chimes struck by the Correos clock. Nowadays it is a communications hub, a meeting point, a place of appointments, a place for celebrations and the beginning of demonstrations in the Capital.

References

  1. Castellanos Onate, Jose Manuel. "El Madrid Medieval. Urbanismo. Murallas". El Madrid Medieval. Archived from the original on 20 November 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  2. Fidel (31 May 2007). "Mercados de Madrid, Cuestión de Supervivencia". Urban Idade. WordPress . Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  3. "Proyecto ganador del concurso municipal para la reforma del mercado y Plaza de la Cebada" (PDF). Área de Gobierno de Urbanismo, Vivienda e Infraestructuras. Madrid. 8 May 2007. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  4. Gracia, M.J. (28 June 2011). "El Ayuntamiento vuelve a "olvidarse" del proyecto del polideportivo de La Cebada". Somos la latina. Archived from the original on 1 November 2011.
  5. EFE (17 March 2010). "La reforma del mercado de la Cebada de La Latina, paralizada". El Mundo . Unidad Editorial Internet, S.L. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  6. Carretero Miramar, José Luis (2011). "Rafael del Riego y el hilo rojo de la democracia". Solidaridad Obrero (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  7. García, Amaya (6 November 2000). "Luis Candelas, el bandido más castizo de la historia". Aula de el Mundo. Archived from the original on 29 June 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  8. "A guide for La Latina: The Other Gayborhood" . Retrieved 27 January 2014.

See also