Calle Palo de Rosa

The name comes from a timber, not a flower. Rosewood comes from several tropical trees of the genus Dalbergia, spread across the Americas, Africa and Asia. Its wood, dark red or nearly purple with black veins, gives off a rose-like scent when cut, hence the name. Cabinetmakers have sought it for centuries for luxury furniture, marquetry and, later, for the backs and sides of fine guitars. It became so coveted that some species ended up endangered, and today its trade is strictly regulated. The street belongs to a corner of Las Acacias where the street directory reads like a sample book of woods and trees, in a neighborhood that announces its green calling from Paseo de las Acacias, named for the acacias planted along its sidewalks in the mid-nineteenth century. This whole sector of Arganzuela grew as a factory district, with foundries, workshops and the old gasworks a step from the Manzanares. What was once an industrial belt has turned residential, stitched together by the Pasillo Verde Ferroviario greenway.