Calle de Francisco Altimiras
The street takes its name from Francisco Altimiras, an owner documented in mid-19th-century Madrid who in 1855 applied for a municipal permit to build on a plot near the Venta del Espíritu Santo, on the edge of what would become La Guindalera. It follows the usual pattern of the eastern outskirts: minor streets that keep the surname of the land’s original owner.
La Guindalera came into being as a residential neighbourhood in the second half of the 19th century, when the owners of gardens and estates east of the old town divided their land into plots. The newly opened streets often inherited the name of the plot’s owner, as happened too with Francisco Navacerrada and Eraso.
Of Francisco Altimiras barely a reliable trace remains: a municipal file in the city archive. In 1855 he applied for a permit to build a house on a plot near the Venta del Espíritu Santo, where the Abroñigal met the Aragon road, and the council gave its approval. The document proves he owned land and had permission to build on that fringe, but says nothing of his trade or origin.
The surname is of Germanic root and is used above all in Catalonia. The name does not appear in the old chroniclers of the street map, a sign that this is a minor street that emerged with the development that followed Castro’s Ensanche.
Sources (5)
- D. Francisco Altimiras, sobre construir una casa próxima a la Venta del Espíritu Santo (1855) — Memoria de Madrid, ficha id=363275
- Juan de Altamiras — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- Altimiras: origen y distribución del apellido — Forebears
- El Origen, Historia y Significado del Apellido Altimiras — Heráldica Familiar
- Las Ventas del Espíritu Santo — Urban Idade