Created upon the demolition of the Convento de la Merced during the early years of the reign of Isabella II, it was inaugurated under the name of Plaza del Progreso ("Square of the Progress"), with some trees planted on the plot. After the 1868 Glorious Revolution, the square gained a statue of Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, precisely the minister behind the ecclesiastical confiscation. After the Francoist victory in the Civil War, the statue of Mendizábal was replaced in 1943 by another one representing Gabriel Téllez (best known as "Tirso de Molina").
