Calle de la Poveda

Poveda comes from the Latin PŌPŬLUS, the poplar that grows beside rivers. Through inherited usage it became pobo or povo, and with the suffix -eda it settled into a word that means, quite simply, a grove of poplars. That word took hold in place names across much of Spain: Poveda in Ávila, Poveda de la Sierra in Guadalajara, La Póveda de Soria. Also in La Poveda de Arganda del Rey, a district that owes its name to the poplars covering the banks of the Jarama before industry arrived. In Madrid, the street is in the Guindalera, a neighbourhood that grew between the late 19th century and the first third of the 20th. The owners of that land parcelled and sold plots, and several streets inherited the names of the rural spots the houses had once stood on. It is said that la Poveda recalls a poplar grove that grew there before the building began. What remains is the imagined grove, which is almost better.