Calle de Cercedilla

The name comes from Cercedilla, the village in the Sierra de Guadarrama tucked at the foot of the Fuenfría pass. Its place name derives from the Latin quercetum, “oak grove,” and arose as a diminutive of neighboring Cerceda. The Roman road of the Fuenfría, one of the routes crossing the Guadarrama, already passed through there. Before taking this name, this Arapiles street was no more than the Callejón del Alamillo. In a 1914 print it appears as a handful of low houses with bare earth instead of paving. Behind it ran the wall of the local cemeteries, and ahead advanced the works of Bravo Murillo, the avenue that would split the district on its way to Tetuán. Today Cercedilla is a short, discreet stretch between Bravo Murillo and Magallanes. Barely a hundred meters bearing the name of a mountain village more than a thousand meters above sea level.