Calle de los Olivos

The olive tree lends its name to this street in northern Vallehermoso, on the edge of Cuatro Caminos. For centuries the tree was part of the landscape of the Madrid heights, scattered with orchards, vineyards and olive groves tended by the country houses on the outskirts. Around the street a group of names drawn from the countryside is arranged: Calle de las Amapolas, Calle de la Viña, Calle de la Brisa, Calle del Pastor, Calle de la Sierra. Well into the 19th century this was outskirts of gardens and pastures, before the arrival of the tram in 1910 sped up the neighborhood’s development with small villas and low houses. No record survives of why the olive was chosen over other trees. The name works as an evocation of that vanished countryside rather than the memory of a particular grove.