Calle de Apodaca

Calle de Apodaca has an unusual origin: until 1863, this ground held the snow wells, underground stores that from 1607 kept snow brought from the Guadarrama mountains to supply Madrid. When the ice factories made them obsolete, a block of streets between Fuencarral and the Glorieta de Bilbao was freed, and the new layout took the sailor’s name from the start. Juan Ruiz de Apodaca served in the Navy for more than six decades, but one episode was enough to fix his name. In June 1808, in the bay of Cádiz, he forced the surrender of a French squadron trapped there since Trafalgar: more than three thousand men taken prisoner, with almost no Spanish losses. It was the most important naval action of the War of Independence. Its parallel streets, Churruca and Barceló, came from the same block and also honor sailors. Whoever strolls here today walks, unaware, over the place where Madrid kept its snow.