Calle de Arapiles

On 22 July 1812, beside two hills called the Arapil Grande and the Arapil Chico, south of Salamanca, the allied army of British, Portuguese and Spanish troops led by the Duke of Wellington broke Marshal Marmont’s French forces. The defeat cleared the road to the capital: on 12 August Wellington entered Madrid. The small town of Arapiles, which took its name from those mounds, thus lent its name to one of the decisive days of the Peninsular War. Madrid recalled it when it opened this street in the late 19th century, from the Glorieta de Quevedo to Vallehermoso. The battle’s name also christened the surrounding district in Chamberí, a name that was not born here but in low hills of the province of Salamanca.