Calle de Baracaldo

The sign brings to Tetuán the name of Baracaldo, the factory town on the left bank of the Nervión, in Biscay. It was not an isolated choice: as this sector of the district was built up, the streets were christened with the names of regions and towns from all over Spain, and this strip drew several from the northern peninsula. The Biscayan name is written Barakaldo in Basque today and its origin is still debated. One theory breaks it into baratz (“orchard”) and alde (“area, side”), an “area of orchards”, though some even doubt that the place-name has Basque roots. The street belongs to the Almenara neighbourhood, popularly known as La Ventilla, an area of old working-class character that went through a long urban redevelopment completed in the early 2000s.