Calle Siete Picos

Northwest of Madrid, rising on the horizon on clear days, stand the Siete Picos: a ridge of the Guadarrama range bristling with seven granite prominences that look like the spines of a back. Hence the name. The highest reaches 2,138 meters, on the border between Madrid and Segovia, above the pine forests of Cercedilla. For much of the Middle Ages, the Guadarrama range was known as the Dragon’s Range, and a legend explains why: a dragon that roamed the world seeking a fountain of eternal youth is said to have finally drunk from a spring hidden among the rocks and turned to stone forever, its jagged spine become rock. Anyone who looks at the ridge against the light still recognizes the figure. This short street in the Ciudad Jardín neighborhood took the name of that recognizable silhouette. Siete Picos keeps the entire mountain on a plaque in Madrid.