Developments of the square

We are in one of the places with the most history in the city since the oldest document that alludes to this square as "the Four Streets" dates from 1388, a time when it had a privileged location in the heart of the city halfway between the commercial area of Zocodover and the religious area of the Cathedral. We must think of a meeting place or "mentidero", a name that these public places acquired in the Golden Age, with a very busy life where proclamations were made, bandos were published or Autos Sacramentales were represented. It is easy to imagine the atmosphere of this place when we read the famous play "El Lazarillo de Tormes" at the moment when the protagonist is distressed to see some beggars passing through this square being whipped or when the famous Miguel de Cervantes tells how he witnessed the sale of some old papers to a silk maker in this same place, thus beginning the story of "Don Quixote". Years later, back in the nineteenth century, we know that the writer Benito Pérez Galdós, who was in love with the city, used to lean on one of its corners to watch the world-famous Corpus Christi procession pass by. Today, this crossroads in the heart of the city continues to radiate its commercial character and history and in case the passerby has not yet noticed, it continues to present us with the mystery of its name: Why do they talk about four streets if there are five?

The Clock Door

Perhaps what has caught our attention the most at this stop is the Cathedral's Clock Door, so called because it houses one of the few clocks left in the world with a single hand, which we glimpse at the end of Chapinería Street, an area where the workshops specialized in the manufacture of these shoes were formerly established. This entrance is also known as the entrance of "the Fair" because it is located in the area where the market was held in the Middle Ages or as that of "the Kings" due to the passage of the Epiphany that is represented in the tympanum.