Calle de Vicente Aleixandre

Named after the Sevillian poet Vicente Aleixandre, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1977, who lived for decades in the house on this very street.

Before honoring a Nobel laureate, this street was called Velintonia, a Spanish rendering of Wellingtonia, the old botanical name for the giant sequoia of California. Under that sign stood the house where Vicente Aleixandre (Seville, 1898 – Madrid, 1984) lived for decades. Aleixandre was one of the central voices of the Generation of '27. Illness kept him confined for much of his life in this Chamberí villa, but the ailment did not silence the gatherings: through his living room passed Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Rafael Alberti, Luis Cernuda, María Zambrano. The house was always known by the street’s name, Velintonia. In 1977 Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the City Council renamed the street after him. The house at number 3 was left empty and fell into decay for decades; the Community of Madrid bought it in 2025 and declared it a site of cultural interest, aiming to turn it into a space devoted to poetry.