Calle de Grijalba

The name travels from a village in northern Burgos to this corner of El Viso. Grijalba is a small town in the Odra-Pisuerga region, built during the medieval resettlement and already recorded in writing in the year 999. The oldest documents call it Ecclesia Alba, “white church”, and the name is thought to come from there; the village still keeps a fortified church with pale walls above the grain-growing plain. There is another reading, just as defended: that grija means “stone”, making Grijalba a “white stone”. Neither wins out. Why a corner of Madrid ended up with the name of that Burgos town is not documented. The street belongs to the part of Chamartín that grew in the 20th century, when El Viso went from a modest housing scheme to one of the city’s most sought-after neighbourhoods.