Calle Vigo

The street takes its name from Vigo, a Galician city in the province of Pontevedra set on the estuary of the same name. It opened in the Pacífico neighbourhood during the development of the Ensanche de Castro in the last quarter of the 19th century, in a grid whose names gather cities, battles and sailors linked to the Spanish Navy. The reference is confirmed in the official street register. The etymology of the place-name Vigo is disputed: the most widespread hypothesis derives it from the Latin vicus —⁠possibly Vicus Spacorum, ‘settlement of the Spaci’⁠—⁠, though a CSIC thesis holds that the Roman settlement was called Burbida and that vicus named a later medieval one; a Gaelic-Norse origin (Úig, ‘bay’) has also had supporters since 2015.

Some Madrid neighbourhoods look like a chart of the sea. Pacífico was born in the last quarter of the 19th century, on the Ensanche de Castro. Its name recalls the expeditions of the Spanish Navy off the coasts of Chile and Peru between 1864 and 1866, which is why its streets parade like a fleet: naval battles, sailors and cities with a long port history. Vigo joins that formation in its own right. Its port was the most important in the northwest of the peninsula and served as a base in several wars. In 1702, in the estuary, the Battle of Rande destroyed or captured the Fleet of the Indies before the Anglo-Dutch squadron. The blow echoed so far that in London part of a street was renamed Vigo Street to celebrate that English victory. The same Galician place-name ended up sewn into the streets of two capitals for opposite reasons. The origin of the name Vigo still keeps philologists busy. The most widespread hypothesis derives it from the Latin Vicus Spacorum, ‘settlement of the Spaci’. A CSIC study disagrees, and since 2015 a third group proposes the Gaelic Úig, ‘bay’. No version has quite managed to convince the others.

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