Calle de Bustarviejo

The street takes its name from Bustarviejo, one of the highest villages in the Madrid region, perched at almost 1,200 metres on the southern slope of the Guadarrama range. The name keeps the mark of livestock: bustar meant an ox stable and, by extension, the pasture where they grazed; viejo, from Latin, points to its age. The place is already named in the 14th century, in Alfonso XI’s Libro de la Montería, which listed the hunting grounds of the sierra. Silver came out of those mountains too: in 1666 a mine opened at the Peña de las Grajas and worked in fits and starts until the 19th century. In this corner of Castillejos, the sign names a highland village whose name still holds its oxen.