Calle Atalaya
Bears the name of the watchtower, whose Spanish name comes from Andalusi Arabic, though there is no record of why it was chosen for this street.
An atalaya is a tall tower from which the horizon is watched and danger announced before it arrives. The word entered Spanish from Andalusi Arabic: at first it named the sentries who went ahead to scout enemy ground, and only later came to mean the tower from which those lookouts scanned the distance.
The calle Atalaya belongs to the Colonia de la Prosperidad, one of the small colonies of low houses raised on the old lands of Chamartín de la Rosa, with front garden and rear yard in the manner of the English garden cities. Why the developers named this stretch so has not survived: there is no record that any tower stood here. What remains is the word, with its charge of watchfulness and height, in one of the district’s quietest colonies.