Calle de Valdelamasa

The Valdelamasa stream rises near the Monte de El Pardo, runs through San Sebastián de los Reyes and the holm-oak woods of the Soto de Viñuelas, and empties into the Bodonal stream, already within the Jarama basin. It is a minor watercourse, one that dries up in summer. The place-name is formed in the old Castilian way, with val, a contraction of valle (valley), followed by its qualifier: the valley of the masa. What that “masa” named here has not survived with any certainty, and it is best not to invent a meaning for it. The street belongs to Ciudad Jardín in Chamartín, a quarter born late, in 1987, when the old Prosperidad was split in two. Like so many streets in the area, it took a name from Madrid’s geography and carried it onto the asphalt. The stream still runs, intermittent, several kilometers to the north.