Calle de Preciados
TypePedestrian street
Length500 m (1,600 ft)
LocationSol, Centro, Madrid, Spain
South endPuerta del Sol
Major
junctions		Plaza de Callao
North-West endPlaza de Santo Domingo

Calle de Preciados (or simply Preciados), is a public pedestrian street in central Madrid, Spain, which spans from Puerta del Sol to Plaza de Santo Domingo via Plaza de Callao, where it takes a bend.[1] It is about 500-metre long.[2]

History

The street was built on land previously occupied by the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales and the harvest plots of the convent of San Martín.[1] According to tradition, the name of Preciados (in use at least since the 17th century) comes from two brothers ('the Preciados') who installed in the area after buying plots to monks and thrived by working as almotacenes (an archaic job description pertaining the certification of weights and measures).[3][4]

Already in 1905, the street was an important retail area, with a predominance of the tailoring and textile sector, shoe and footwear, pharmacy, as well as catering businesses.[5] Throughout the 20th century, commercial activity boosted in the wake of the growth of Galerías Preciados and Corte Inglés department stores (by the purchase of neighbouring businesses).[6] Starting in December 1967, the street started being closed to traffic on a temporary basis for the Christmas season owing to the large flow of pedestrians.[7] On 20 October 1973, the permanent pedestrianisation of the street (together with Calle del Carmen's) was formally inaugurated by Mayor Miguel Ángel García-Lomas.[7] Galerías Preciados could not cope with El Corte Inglés' growth and ended being acquired by its rival in 1995.[8] As of 2018, Preciados is one of the busiest pedestrian streets in Europe.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 Domingo, M.R. (19 February 2015). "La casa de campo de los Reyes de Castilla que se convirtió en la calle más comercial de Madrid". ABC.
  2. ↑ Morales, Alejandro (2 December 2020). "La calle Preciados en Madrid sufre una huida de inquilinos en sus locales comerciales". Merca2.
  3. ↑ Serna, Víctor de la (12 December 2021). "La apreciada calle Preciados". El Mundo.
  4. ↑ Peñasco de la Puente, Hilario; Cambronero, Carlos (1889). Las calles de Madrid: noticias, tradiciones y curiosidades. Madrid: Establecimiento tipográfico de D. Enrique Rubiños. p. 209.
  5. ↑ Miguel Salanova, Santiago de (2012). "Las raíces de una metrópoli: el centro financiero de Madrid a principios del siglo XX" [The roots of a metropolis: the financial centre of Madrid at the beginning of the twentieth century] (PDF). Hispania Nova. Getafe: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (10). ISSN 1138-7319.
  6. ↑ Toboso Sánchez, Pilar (2010). "Los orígenes cubanos de El Corte Inglés y de Galerias Preciados: los dos grandes almacenes del comercio em España" (PDF). IX Encontro Internacional da ANPHLAC (Associaçao de Pesquisadores e Professores de História das Américas): Goiânia, 26 de julho a 29 julho de 2010. ISBN 978-85-61621-03-2.
  7. 1 2 Chico, Rafael (1973). "Las calle de Carmen y Preciados, "salon de estar" de las gentes de Madrid" (PDF). Villa de Madrid: 3–4. ISSN 0042-6164.
  8. ↑ "La compañía que nació de una pequeña sastrería en el centro de Madrid". Cinco Días. 15 September 2014.
  9. ↑ Tapia Zamorano, Manuel (29 December 2018). "Lugares de Madrid por donde antes pasaban coches y ya no te acuerdas". Público.
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