Travesía de las Pozas

Travesía de las Pozas measures barely sixty meters. It begins at calle de las Pozas and ends at calle Ancha de San Bernardo, in the heart of the Universidad neighborhood. The whole name fits into the time it takes to walk from one end to the other. The pools that name it truly existed. They were irrigation ponds of an orchard tended by the cleric Diego Enríquez on this block, before the court settled in the city in 1561. The estate had a fountain with water features, and on Saint John’s day it opened to the public so anyone could enjoy it. The place name predates Philip II, one of the oldest in the area. At number 17 of the parent street lived Enrique Serrano Fatigati (1845–1918), founder of the Spanish Excursion Society. Years later, Rosa Chacel devoted passages of Barrio de Maravillas (1976) to these streets, with their air of tenement houses and small trade.