Avenida de Pablo Iglesias

The name recalls Pablo Iglesias Posse, born in Ferrol in 1850 into a humble family. He learned the typesetter’s trade in Madrid, and from those trays of lead type came the leader who founded the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and the UGT union, and who in 1910 entered Congress as the country’s first socialist deputy. The avenida de Pablo Iglesias runs in a long diagonal between Cuatro Caminos and the Ciudad Universitaria, on the border of Chamberí with Moncloa. Its course follows that of the old Canalillo, the branch of the Acequia del Norte that carried Lozoya water up to these heights. That open thread of water, with its riverside eateries at the edge of the city, was for decades one of the favorite walks of northern Madrid.