Calle Espartinas

In 1249 Ferdinand III tried to rename this place Monasterios. He failed. The old name resisted him and even today no one knows for certain where it comes from. There are three clues and none wins. The first points to the Latin spartum: for some there was a Roman owner named Spartus; for others what grew there was esparto grass, used to braid ropes. The second comes from a settlement Ptolemy recorded as Spolentium, whose name soldiers from Italian Spoleto supposedly brought. The third tells of some Espartales where survivors of a plague migrated. Each explanation has defenders and none has the backing to close the case. Madrid’s calle Espartinas was laid out within the Castro Plan and got its official name on 2 March 1887. It runs from Príncipe de Vergara to General Pardiñas, in the Goya neighborhood, where the street map follows one rule: Spanish towns.