Calle de El Atazar

The name travels from the far northeast of the province. El Atazar is a small village in the Sierra Norte, overlooking the largest reservoir in the Madrid region, the dam that supplies water to much of the capital and was built between 1965 and 1972. The street belongs to a habit of the Delicias neighborhood: naming its streets after towns in the province, so that the map reads like a miniature of the region. The village’s history left its mark on the landscape. When the reservoir filled, the best farmland went under water, along with the El Riato mill and the road toward Cervera de Buitrago. The population dropped to around eighty. The mill reappears today when the water level falls.