Calle de Palencia

The name comes from Palencia, the province and its capital in the northern Castilian plateau, in a part of Cuatro Caminos where the map was arranged around the country’s provinces. To walk these streets is to read a map of Spain traced on the asphalt of Tetuán. The city sinks its roots in a settlement of the Vaccaei that ancient sources recorded as Pallantia, always a modest town on the northern plateau. What defines the Madrid street today is a huge neighbor. Along one of its flanks stretches the Mercado de Maravillas, opened in 1942 and conceived with the ambition of being one of the largest municipal markets of its time. Whoever walks along Calle de Palencia skirts that immense hall, the bustle of the stalls filtering out to the sidewalk.