Calle de Prieto Ureña

The calle de Prieto Ureña traces little more than four hundred metres through the barrio de Nueva España, in Chamartín, among blocks of flats raised when this stretch of northern Madrid was built up in the mid-twentieth century. The compound surname belongs to a person, following the map’s custom of honouring particular individuals. The reason for the tribute is unrecorded. Where the street stands and what it is called are known, but not who Prieto Ureña was or what merit earned the honour. No record has survived of a life, dates or the reason for the name. There are people with that surname in the records of the period, but none can be tied with certainty to this dedication. Anyone walking the street today passes a surname on the signs with no life behind it.