Plaza de la Charca Verde

Before 2017 this square was called Plaza de Arriba España, a Falangist slogan born in the Civil War. When the city council reviewed the street names to remove the traces of Francoism, this corner of Ciudad Jardín got a christening of water and greenery. The change was upheld in 2021, after appeals tried to block it. “Green pond” names an image more than a place: a pool of still water tinted the color of its bed. It echoes the Madrid mountains, where a famous pond of that name exists, an emerald pool of the Manzanares in La Pedriza that in summer served as a beach for half the city. Whether those who named Plaza de la Charca Verde had it in mind was never recorded.