With a smartphone in hand, anyone (with a little time) can even go to Matalascañas, but what was the situation a hundred years ago? Well, a very different one in which order and concert were needed. It was the 19th century and the city’s street map was in chaos. Streets that shared names and numbers that began at random.
Orientation in Madrid two hundred years ago could be reminiscent of the (current) confusions among clueless people who think that the district of La Latina is the neighborhood of La Latina or that the Manuela Malasaña subway stop is at Manuela Malasaña.
The kilometer zero of Spain has to be, by categorical imperative, the kilometer zero of Madrid. That may have been what José Vizcaino aka the widowed Marquis of Pontejos aka the first constitutional mayor of Madrid thought
José Vizcaino implemented something not so new (present in practically all cities), but extremely practical. Puerta del Sol would be the place from which all street numbers would be born.
From that moment on, the numbering of the streets starts from the point closest to Puerta del Sol and ascends as the street moves away from Sol. In other words: starting from any point of the city, if you look for the number 1 of each street, the theory says that we would end up in Puerta del Sol.
And also odd and even numbering
The Madrid City Council says about this mayor: “Mayor Joaquín Vizcaino, widower of Pontejos, in the short period of two years improved street cleaning, gas lighting and cobblestones. Houses were renumbered, trees were planted and streets were given official names.”
In addition, another rule was created to exterminate chaos: starting from Sol, even numbers would be on the right and odd numbers would be on the left.