Calle Nogal

The walnut gives its name to this short street in Berruguete. It is one of the most prized trees of the European countryside: deciduous, broad-crowned, able to exceed twenty metres, famous for two things. Its wood, hard and grained in dark brown, is the favourite of cabinetmakers and carpenters. And its fruit, the nut shut in a woody shell, has been pantry food since long before it reached the peninsula, perhaps with the Romans. The scientific name itself, Juglans regia, comes from the Latin Iovis glans, “the acorn of Jupiter,” the nut worthy of the king of the gods. The street belongs to a run of neighbourhood streets named after trees and plants, a common habit when building up new areas. There is no record that a particular walnut grew here. Berruguete, moreover, is among the least tree-covered neighbourhoods in Madrid, so its Nogal survives mostly on the sign.