Calle de los Algodonales
It takes its name from Algodonales, a town in Cádiz whose name recalls the cotton fields that once covered its valley.
Behind this name grows a plant. An algodonal is a cotton field, and calle de los Algodonales inherits it from Algodonales, a white town in the mountains of Cádiz overlooking the Sierra de Líjar. The settlers who came down from Zahara in the sixteenth century chose the valley for its deep soil and plentiful water, and the place became known for the crops that thrived at the foot of the hills.
In Madrid the name took root in Tetuán, a district that drew its street names from towns scattered across Spain. That town in Cádiz had one episode worth recalling as you walk the pavement: in 1810 its people held off a siege of thousands of French soldiers for two days, and the reprisal burned much of the village down.