Pasaje de Bisbal

The passage bears the surname Bisbal, of Catalan origin, derived from the Latin episcopalis through place names such as La Bisbal d’Empordà (Girona) or La Bisbal del Penedès (Tarragona). No source records the reason for the name; the likeliest theory points to the surname of the land’s owner or developer.

The Pasaje de Bisbal is a small residential street in the Fuente del Berro neighbourhood. Living here means inhabiting a piece of Madrid that filled with houses from 1926, when the developer Gregorio Iturbe Aldalur built the Colonia Iturbe on the grounds of the old Quinta de la Fuente del Berro. That development left behind a web of minor passages that still crosses the neighbourhood, though no document confirms this one was born with the colony. The name travels from Catalonia. Bisbal is a Catalan surname drawn from the place names of La Bisbal d’Empordà, in Girona, and La Bisbal del Penedès, in Tarragona. The word bisbal comes from the Latin episcopalis and marked the estates belonging to a bishop’s domain. In the area’s private passages the custom was to name the street after the plot’s owner, and it is said something of the sort may have happened here, but no one has been able to prove it.

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