Calle Viñuelas

Viñuelas sounds of the countryside before it sounds of a street. The word is a diminutive of viña (vineyard): a small vineyard, a modest patch planted with vines. Several places in Spain sprang from the same mould, from a village in Guadalajara to the hill and castle of Viñuelas, north of Madrid, above a stream of the same name that runs down towards the Jarama. That castle carries a long history. Built over a holm-oak grove prized for hunting, it passed through the hands of kings and, in the twentieth century, served as a temporary residence for Francisco Franco in 1939, before his move to El Pardo. Why this particular Legazpi street took the name has not survived in any record. What is clear is the root: at some point on this ground, before the asphalt and the warehouses, someone counted the vines of a small vineyard and left the word on the map.