Pasaje Romero
The name recalls rosemary, the aromatic shrub of the Mediterranean scrubland, though the specific reason for the choice was not documented.
An alley barely thirty-five meters long slips between the buildings of Ríos Rosas with a name that smells of the hills: rosemary, the woody shrub with bluish flowers that grows wild across the dry slopes of much of Spain. The word comes from the Latin ros marinus, “sea dew.”
Why this particular passage got the name, no reliable record survives. Madrid named many minor streets after plants as the northern expansion was built up in the late 19th century, and this corner of Chamberí fits that habit of dusting the street map with country scents. Rosemary was also a common surname, so a tribute to a person cannot be ruled out.
Whoever crosses the Pasaje Romero today on the way to Bravo Murillo treads one of those quiet shortcuts the city filled with country names just as it was running out of country in sight.