Calle de Anzuola

The name travels to a town in Gipuzkoa set at the foot of the Descarga pass, in the Alto Deba district. Antzuola grew up around Uzarraga, one of the oldest parishes in the area, and in 1629 broke away from the jurisdiction of Bergara to become a town in its own right. The name comes from Basque. It is read as the joining of antzu, “dry” or “barren,” and ola, a locative suffix very common in Basque place names, pointing to a patch of poor, infertile ground. The breakdown deserves some caution, since the recorded form wavered for centuries between Anzuola and Antzuola. In the Prosperidad neighbourhood the street sits among others named after towns and districts of northern Spain. Why Antzuola was chosen for this particular stretch is not recorded. For anyone reading it aloud outside the door: here it is pronounced “Anzuola,” and its current Basque spelling, Antzuola, sounds the same.