Calle del Almez

The hackberry is a Mediterranean tree with a smooth grey trunk, a rounded crown and wood so tough it barely rots. Its name came from the Andalusi Arabic al-máys: with its incorruptible wood they built waterwheels, carts, oars and even flutes. In this corner of Atocha the street joins a small neighborhood of ways named after trees. The hackberry holds stories bigger than its size. Its fruits, the little hackberries, were a treat for children, who also used them as blowpipe ammunition. Some botanists point to it as the legendary “lotus” of the lotus-eaters that Ulysses found in the Odyssey, the fruit that made you forget the way home. Today the calle del Almez is a short stretch with a playground among its benches and fountains, where the tree that gives the street its name could well shade the swings.