Calle Armando Palacio Valdés

Palacio Valdés turned from critic to novelist close to naturalism, with titles still read today, above all La hermana San Sulpicio; he held a seat in the Spanish Royal Academy and was twice floated as a candidate for the Nobel, which he never received. He died in Madrid in 1938. The street belongs to the El Viso colony, developed in the 1930s on Rafael Bergamín’s rationalist design. That neighborhood of low houses with views of the mountains drew intellectuals, and its streets filled with writers, so the novelist’s name ended up among neighbors of a kindred trade. Whoever walks it today crosses one of the most serene layouts in Madrid, with gardens peeking over the walls a stone’s throw from the Bernabéu.