Calle del Calvario (Madrid)

Calle del Calvario is located between the streets of Olivar and Jesús y María in Madrid (Community of Madrid, Spain). It was called that because the route of the Via Crucis or Calvary that had been instituted by Saint Francis of Assisi ended here.

The Via Crucis started from the convent of San Francisco (where the basilica of San Francisco the Great stands today) and ended in this Calvary street. The stations were initially marked with wooden crosses, which were later replaced by others made of apiary stone.

When the town grew around these areas, the Via Crucis was moved in 1613 to the old San Bernardino road (today Calle de la Princesa). As the so-called Calvary field was blessed, it was used to bury the dead there, in addition to the prisoners who had been condemned to die by being dismembered and stoned to death. For this reason, when work began to open the street, they found a good number of skeletons and bones that were transferred to the disappeared San Sebastián cemetery (on Méndez Álvaro street). It is said that the defender of the so-called Torrecilla del Leal was buried at the foot of the ninth cross, hanged there by order of Enrique de Trastamara, for his fidelity to Pedro I.

To avoid scandals and desecrations on the Via Crucis on the San Bernardino road, the Council issued a provision in 1622 by which women walked the Via Crucis on a Friday and men on another Friday. In 1641 the circulation of cars and horses on the aforementioned road was prohibited, for which reason, every year during Lent, palenques were erected on the road, thus preventing circulation.