Plaza de la Cebada

The square where you're standing takes its name from the barley that was once traded here, because farmers brought their grain, vegetables and salted pork to this spot, and the crown bought the feed for the cavalry horses here too. On the map that Teixeira drew of Madrid in 1656 it's almost as large as the Plaza Mayor.

This was also the place of the scaffold. While the Plaza Mayor was reserved for the solemn spectacles the court attended, ordinary criminal justice played out right here, in among the stalls, and it carried on well into the nineteenth century.

The most famous man to die here was Luis Candelas, born in the neighbourhood across the Calle de Toledo. He robbed carriages and wealthy houses, and he did it with a flair that made him popular in Madrid, until he was caught in January 1837 after his description was pasted up all over the city. That November he was put to death here by the garrote, an iron collar that is tightened by hand and works more slowly than the rope, which was precisely the point.

We cross the square to its northwestern corner, where at the Puerta de Moros the Cava Baja climbs away between low houses.