Glorieta de Bilbao

The name commemorates the siege of Bilbao during the First Carlist War. In late 1836 Carlist troops surrounded the town, which held out until liberal forces broke the siege on Christmas Eve. Madrid chose to remember the feat by renaming one of the gates in Philip IV’s wall that opened at this northern edge of the city. That gate had earlier been called de los Pozos de la Nieve, the Snow Wells. Here, still on the outskirts, snow brought from the Guadarrama mountains in winter was stored underground and sold in summer to cool drinks and preserve food. The city ended among snow pits and empty lots. When the wall came down in 1868, the roundabout inherited the name Bilbao, and the old outskirts became the new Chamberí district. Today Fuencarral, Carranza, Luchana and Sagasta all meet here.