Calle del Pinar

Pinar names land planted with pines, and that is what Calle del Pinar points to, though no written record survives of the wood that justified the name. The place name suits a spot that through the 19th century was open field to the northeast of the city: they called it Cerro del Viento, and later Altos del Hipódromo. Waste ground and scattered trees before the residential colonies covered it. In 1915 the Residencia de Estudiantes moved to number 23 of Calle del Pinar, where García Lorca, Buñuel and Dalí crossed paths. Seeing the spot, planted with young poplars, Juan Ramón Jiménez named it the Hill of Poplars, a name still used for that corner of gardens and laboratories. The El Viso colony came later, between 1933 and 1936, with Rafael Bergamín’s Rationalist houses that gave the neighborhood its skyline of white cubes and flat roofs.