High above Calle de Segovia, Madrid's viaduct, which connects La Morería with the cathedral and royal palace, was built in the 19th century and replaced by a newer version in 1942; the plastic barriers were erected in the late 1990s to prevent suicide jumps. Before the viaduct was built, anyone wanting to cross from one side of the road or river to the other was obliged to make their way down to Calle de Segovia and back up the other side.
If you feel like re-enacting the journey, head down to Calle de Segovia and cross to the southern side. Just east of the viaduct, on a characterless apartment block wall (No 21), is a 17th-century coat of arms, one of the city’s oldest. The site once belonged to Madrid’s Ayuntamiento (Town Hall).
A punt would ferry people across what was then a trickling tributary of the Río Manzanares. You could follow that former trickle's path west, down to the banks of the Manzanares and a nine-arched bridge, the Puente de Segovia, which Juan de Herrera built in 1584.
