Madrid - Ribera de Curtidores

The main axis of this typical Madrid quarter is the wide Ribera de Curtidores, the name of which - Tanners' Bank - recalls the tanneries and slaughterhouses once to be found here. The Ribera is the haunt of rag merchants and antique dealers, customers looking for a bargain and the merely curious, idlers, rogues and charlatans. On Sunday mornings in particular a dense and colorful throng of people moves from stall to stall, between old mattresses, trunks and suitcases, boots and uniforms, baskets, ironware and an infinite variety of other articles - old, new and nearly new.

The painter José Gutiérrez Solana and the writer Gómez de la Serna immortalized this curious world in their genre pieces.