Avenida de la Guindalera
The avenue takes its name from the Guindalera neighborhood, whose place name comes from the old sour-cherry orchards on Madrid’s eastern outskirts, watered by the Abroñigal stream and, from 1868, by the canalillo of the Canal de Isabel II. The legend of an owner nicknamed “Don Guindo” is recorded by Isabel Gea Ortigas, who warns that no direct documentation of him exists.
In the mid-nineteenth century this was open country east of Madrid, a patchwork of orchards that drank from the Abroñigal stream, now buried under the M-30. From 1868 water also came through the canalillo, the eastern branch of the Canal de Isabel II, which kept the plots green until 1967.
The name hides little mystery at its root: it comes from the guinda, the fruit of the sour-cherry tree, and the suffix -era, which marks the place where something grows in abundance. A cherry grove, in short.
Here the character enters. It is said that the orchards belonged to one “Don Guindo,” and that the place name came from him. The versions contradict one another: in some the protagonist is an orchard-woman named Isabel; in others, a male owner. No one has found him. The name of the district ended up covering everything: it was inherited by the avenida de la Guindalera, the market, the social club and the parish.
Sources (6)
- El rincón de Mayrit — Origen del nombre del barrio La Guindalera (2012)
- Wikipedia ES — La Guindalera
- Urbancidades — La Guindalera demolida (Madrid)
- Urbancidades — Acequia de riego del Este de Madrid: el canalillo (2014)
- Centros Municipales de Mayores de Chamartín — Pasea tu ciudad: Colonia de Correos, La Guindalera y Madrid Moderno
- Rutas Tranquilas Madrileñas — La Guindalera, muchas sorpresas