Calle del Delfín

The calle del Delfín begins in a corner of Almenara where the street map filled with flowers: on one side the calle de las Aguileñas, nearby the calle del Nardo. In that company, the dolphin ceases to be an animal and becomes a plant. Behind it is the delphinium, the flower the garden knows as larkspur. Its name comes from the Greek delphís, “dolphin,” because the bud, before it opens, traces the silhouette of a snout leaping out of the water. The larkspur raises blue and violet spikes that in summer tint the flowerbeds a cool color. Why “Delfín” was chosen for this street was never written down, so the reading grows from the neighborhood. Rather than a cetacean, what the name suggests is a row of blue bells in the north of Madrid.