Callejón de los Morales

A moral is the tree that bears the black mulberries, Morus nigra, a relative of the white mulberry on whose leaf the silkworm was fed. That is the most natural reading for this Callejón de los Morales: a corner where such trees grew. Caution is due, since “Morales” is also a common surname, and no written record survives of the reason for the name. What is documented is the place. The alleyway belongs to the old core of Chamartín de la Rosa, the independent town that stretched north of Madrid until its annexation in 1948, around the former main square now called Plaza del Duque de Pastrana. The title names the square because the dukes were, for centuries, owners of the old settlement of Chamartín, and their palace stood beside it. The town’s first town hall occupied a building next to this very alleyway. A narrow lane that was, for centuries, the flank of the heart of a whole town.