Calle de la Povedilla

The street takes its name from Povedilla, a town in Albacete in the region of Sierra de Alcaraz and Campo de Montiel. The name comes from medieval Castilian “poveda” (from Latin “pópulus”, poplar), with the collective suffix -eda and the diminutive -illa, meaning a small poplar grove. The street was laid out in the eastern extension of the Castro Plan (1860).

Calle de la Povedilla bears the name of a tiny town in Albacete set in the Sierra de Alcaraz. Its history hides a castle deliberately torn down. For centuries Povedilla depended on the nearby town of Alcaraz. In the 15th century it committed what its lords saw as treason: when Alcaraz sided with the infante Alfonso, Povedilla’s council stayed loyal to King Henry IV. Once the dispute was settled, Alcaraz took its revenge and in 1466 ordered the town’s castle demolished so no one would dare disobey again. That razed castle is still there, drawn on the municipal coat of arms. The name speaks of trees. It comes from poveda, a Romance word for a poplar grove, formed on the old pobo (from Latin pópulus, poplar) plus the suffix -eda; the diminutive -illa shrinks it to a small poplar grove. The street was born with the eastern extension that Carlos María de Castro planned for Madrid, approved in 1860.

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