Calle de Juan del Enzina

Behind the sign is a cobbler’s son who renamed himself. Juan del Encina was born around 1468 near Salamanca with the surname Fermoselle, and swapped it for that of a tree, the holm oak (encina), when he began signing verses. From choirboy at the cathedral he moved to the court of the Dukes of Alba, and there, around 1492, staged his eclogues: small pieces in which shepherds spoke like villagers but felt like courtiers. Much of Castilian theater begins with those dialogues performed in a noble hall. Encina tended the music as much as the verse; he composed carols still sung today. A slight at the cathedral of Salamanca drove him to Italy, where he served in the chapel of several popes. In old age he was ordained a priest and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He died around 1529 and rests in the Salamanca cathedral. The street, barely a hundred meters in Bellas Vistas, bears his name in the old spelling, Juan del Enzina, that z he himself used when signing.