Calle de Algeciras

Calle de Algeciras is barely long enough for a sigh: a short stretch dropping between the Cuesta de las Descargas and the Ronda de Segovia, at the foot of the Vistillas hill, along the southern edge of medieval Madrid that led from the walled town down to the Manzanares meadow. It was once called Argollón, and the name holds a whole scene. Argollón is the augmentative of argolla: those iron rings driven into the suburb walls to tether the pack animals. Mule trains came and went here, and from that daily traffic the name arose, one that probably fell with the 19th-century council purge of trade place-names. That it ended up called Algeciras may have to do with an illustrious neighbour: the church of San Pedro el Viejo, whose Mudéjar tower Alfonso XI had raised around 1344 to celebrate the taking of Algeciras. No document confirms it, but the coincidence is hard to ignore.

The Mudéjar tower of the church of San Pedro el Viejo, raised on the orders of Alfonso XI around 1344–1345 to commemorate the capture of Algeciras, stands a few hundred meters from this street. It was built by Muslim master masons under Christian rule, which is why its silhouette recalls an Andalusi minaret. The coincidence that the stretch closest to that tower bears the name of the city Alfonso XI had just conquered is striking, though no document confirms it as the reason for the change of name.