Calle Nueva
Promoted by the Catholic Monarchs
This is one of the oldest streets in the historic centre. It was laid out a few years after the conquest of the city by the Catholic Monarchs. Opened in 1491, this street, narrow by today's standards, was designed to facilitate the transit of goods between the Puerta del Mar, in the port, and the Puerta de Antequera, located to the northwest of the walled area, which was the main entrance for agricultural products from the inland orchards and around which the warehouses were located.
This street already existed in the Islamic period of Malaga, but it did not extend beyond the current church of the Concepción. After the conquest of Malaga by the Catholic Monarchs, a new city and a new spatial distribution of it began to take shape. One of the initial actions of the first mayor of the city, Garcí Fernández Manrique, was to directly connect the Plaza Mayor with the Puerta del Mar. And in 1491 it was decided to open a new street. To do this, the existing buildings in it had to be aligned. And this was done by placing a post taller than the buildings at each end of the street. A string was tied from one post to the other, and the string was tightened, and according to this tightening, house by house it was indicated how far each one should be set back or closer to that alignment, doing the same on the opposite sidewalk. A deadline was set for the execution of said works, and the works were finished at the end of 1492.
Calle Nueva would become from that moment on, and until the construction of the Marquis of Larios, the main street of the city and the most commercial of all.
In 1990, the architect Eduardo Serrano designed a special flooring that would give clues about the history of the street. In this way, if you go towards it from Cisneros Street, you will find Fernando Lessep Street on the right, a French diplomat and businessman who planned the construction of the Suez Canal. The success of the company led him to be named president of the French company that managed the construction of the Panama Canal. Fernando de Lesseps lived for a time in Malaga, specifically in Churriana. That is why the ground at the height of this street contains the representation of the famous Suez Canal that gave Fernando de Lesseps so much prestige.
Further down the street Cinco Bolas we find the existence of the same on the façade of the church of San Juan. As for the meaning, there are some who claim that they are five cannon balls used during the siege of Malaga in 1487. Others say that they want to remind us of the Paschal Candle, which has as its decoration five small balls of five colours: the blue of the sky and purity; the green of hope and life; the red of fire, love and sacrifice; the purple of penitence and a yellow ball, symbol of the light of the sun and the Majesty of Christ, his Resurrection and Easter.
Some historians mention the existence of a convent of nuns next to the Church of San Juan, in which some of its rooms were used as a brothel for the nobles of the city. This five-ball cross would mark the door through which they had to enter the convent for such purposes.
Further down the ghost recalls Duende Street, which already existed when Nueva Street was built. As could not be otherwise, it represents an enormous ghost that accompanies pedestrians in their daily wandering through this central street. They say that when the wind blew, the ghost's howling could be heard.
Further down we see a representation alluding to Cintería Street, a street where ribbon sellers and haberdashers settled in the 16th century, hence the reason why ribbons once appeared adorning this part of the street's floor. And the last of the symbols, of which little remains, allows us to see a burning heart as the only reminder of the Conventico that was located between the streets Marín García, Liborio García, Mesón de Vélez and Almacenes. Its name comes from the convent that the order of the Discalced Trinitarians founded on this site in 1634. The monks were there until the confiscation of church property, and many people, businesses and institutions gradually occupied the forgotten building. A terrifying fire destroyed it in the early hours of December 19, 1901.
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