Avenida de la Moncloa
The avenue takes its name from the Moncloa estate and villa, whose place name comes from the old counts of La Monclova.
The name reaches this corner of Chamberí from the old estate that gave character to all of northwest Madrid. The avenida de la Moncloa inherits it from the country villa that Gaspar de Haro y Guzmán, Marquis of Eliche, built beside the Cantarranas stream after buying the land in 1660. The mansion was first known as Casa Pintada, for the frescoes on its walls, before settling on the name that today marks the neighborhood, the seat of government, and this street.
The place name was not born in Madrid. It comes from the counts of La Monclova, former owners of one of the market gardens, whose title goes back to a medieval castle in Fuentes de Andalucía, in Seville. Its root is usually linked to the Latin Mons Clovis, the mount of Clovis, though the exact origin is undocumented.
The palace was destroyed in the Civil War and rebuilt as an official residence. The avenue keeps, unknown to the passerby, the echo of an Andalusian castle.