Malasaña, from the cruel French invader to the Movida

In 1925, when

described it, Calle de Malasaña was already called that, although the City Council had not yet added the proper name that it holds today and which completes it:

.

And the personality of the Madrid woman assassinated by the French invader already made her stand out from neighboring streets with more neutral names.

Of course, on the eve

, no woman from Madrid would have a fairer place on this page.

Curiously, that name did not become the name of all that classic and today famous neighborhood until much later.

The journalists of the

newspaper -the lonely pro-democratic voice of late Francoism after the closure of

who were already working in the area in 1970, on San Roque street, never called it, nor did they hear the neighbors call it, "Malasaña".

.

First curious fact, then: Malasaña Street did not dominate the entire neighborhood in 1925 or in 1970.

of 1980, when Enrique Tierno Galván - «get high and go!» - was the vigorously party mayor of Madrid, and from Malasaña street came an impulse of revelry and also of culture very typical of that time.

The legend speaks of a sparkler -popular name of the traditional Madrid residents of that neighborhood of Maravillas- fighting against the French on May 2, 1808, to whom his daughter helped by giving him cartridges when a bullet ended the life of the girl.

Répide specified: «History makes the legend disappear», and added: «

, but not as the legend reflects.

Manuela Malasaña y Oñoro, fatherless at the time, was

, who lived at number 18 Calle de San Andrés.

(...) The girl was coming from her work and she was on her way to her house when she was stopped and searched by the Napoleonic soldiers, who found some small scissors of her trade.

The cruel faction of Murat, which punished all possession of weapons, considering as such even a few knives or scissors no matter how small, had to be enough for the unhappy embroiderer to be shot».

The innocent civilians murdered by an invading army, true unfortunate heroes from 1808 to 2022, just when the same thing is happening a few thousand kilometers east of Madrid.

very

From Wonders to Ethiopian restaurants

Répide's narration includes a mention of the cultural history of that street, still called Peninsular at the end of the 19th century when it housed the editorial office of the

magazine , and as Malasaña saw the construction of the

, one of the first cinemas in the city, also the theater where

performed for the last time in our capital three years before her death, later renamed

.

The Maravillas, which happily revived after six years of closure at the beginning of this century, continues to be the cultural reference of this street that joins Fuencarral and San Bernardo just one block away from the boulevards.

In the enlarged neighborhood that today has adopted its name there are other important ones, such as Lara.

, and in its theater there coexist, depending on the day and time, up to five shows currently headed by the comedy

, no less than 11 seasons on the bill.

The shows and the drinks made this little street famous, not to mention the appearance of the Movida, and those shows with drinks have a historic venue at number 31:

, where hard rock is accompanied with its famous Leche de Brontosaurus (gin, rum, vodka, Cointreau, currant, milk, cinnamon and ice),

, and we see that they have also invented a Mastodon based on champagne (more like cava, we suppose... ), orange liqueur, rum and sprig of mint.

Well, you know.

The eating houses are not lacking on this street, as in the rest of this neighborhood of Madrid, and they give it a lot of life.

and was among the restaurants of that Madrid gastronomic renewal of a quarter of a century ago, but which no longer maintains that level.

Culinary

is what has resisted in Malasaña street and continues to resist.

Gone is the one that was one of the only two vegetarian restaurants in the city in the 80s, and that then attracted a lot of attention -although not for the excellent quality of its vegetable dishes, if we remember correctly-, but obviously that in this vegan era would already lack the slightest originality.

Instead, it was an almost inexplicable originality from a couple of decades ago that

.

La Movida is long gone, but one of those two little African

is miraculously still there, offering cuisine that is completely unknown to us.

Her name is

, so you know where to go to discover the star dishes of the country that inspired

and his

, like sambusa.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

The streetsPríncipe de Vergara: two generals, two streets

The streets, from Répide to todayHuertas street, so complete: palaces, writers, taverns

EnseñanzaMadrid will implement education from zero to three years in public schools from the 2022/23 academic year

See links of interest

• Last News

• What

• Work calendar 2022

• Work calendar Madrid 2022

• Osasuna - Villarreal

• Udinese - Sampdoria

• Hertha BSC - Eintracht Frankfurt

• VfL Bochum 1848 - SpVgg Greuther Fürth

• VfL Wolfsburg - 1. FC Union Berlin