Calle de los Peñascales
The street takes its name from the rugged, stony ground that marked the eastern slope of the Ensanche before it was built up. Its layout follows the old Camino de la Fuente del Berro, which dropped from Doctor Esquerdo to the country estate, bending with the terrain. The City Council formalised the name on 28 December 1944.
A peñascal is ground strewn with crags. That is what this slope was before the neighbourhood tamed it: the incline dropping from Doctor Esquerdo toward the Quinta de la Fuente del Berro had rough ground, rocks poking through and sudden dips, right at the edge where the flat Ensanche gave way to the old bed of the Abroñigal stream. The water channel bringing the Fuente del Berro had to force its way through that broken terrain, its two branches meeting at the end of the street.
The path led to the Quinta de la Fuente del Berro, a Crown estate since 1630. The name was made official on 28 December 1944.
The slope that gave the name its meaning has not surrendered. Anyone arriving today from Doctor Esquerdo still has to climb a flight of steps where the street begins.
Its names
- Camino de la Fuente del Berroanterior a 1944
Sources (4)
- El Camino de la Fuente del Berro, la fábrica de relojes y el barrio del Porvenir del Artesano — Arte en Madrid
- Visita a los Antiguos Viajes de Agua (VIII). Fuente del Berro — Arte en Madrid
- Historia de la Quinta de la Fuente del Berro — Ayuntamiento de Madrid
- Fuente del Berro — Patrimonio y paisaje, Ayuntamiento de Madrid