Calle de Palos de la Frontera

The name travels from Madrid to the mouth of the Tinto, in Huelva, where the town of Palos de la Frontera stands. From its modest river port, on 3 August 1492, Columbus’s expedition sailed with the Pinta, the Niña and the Santa María. It was people from Palos, led by the Pinzón brothers, who made up much of the crew. That is why the town is known as the cradle of the discovery. The place-name hides an old copying error. The town was called simply Palos until the chroniclers of the Indies confused it with nearby Moguer and began writing Palos de Moguer, a place that never existed. That ghost reached Madrid: the street opened in the late 19th century was named Palos de Moguer. The correction took nearly a century. In 1979 the street became Palos de la Frontera, and the neighborhood kept the wrong name until 2022, when a residents' vote finally recovered the true one.