Calle de Antonio

A bare first name, with no surname or “Saint” beside it, is enough to label this short street in Almenara, in northern Tetuán. The origin of Antonio is undocumented: there is no record of which Anthony it honours or when the sign went up. The clue lies in the neighbourhood itself. Almenara, the area Madrid knew as La Ventilla, grew out of low houses and self-building on the empty lots of the outskirts, where the streets tended to carry humble, devout names. This Antonio probably points to one of the popular saints, Saint Anthony of Padua or Saint Anthony the Abbot, though this is unconfirmed. It should not be confused with calle de San Antonio de Padua, which is a different street. Here only the first name remained, bare on the plaque.