Travesía Huerta del Obispo
It recalls the old orchard of a bishop that stretched across this part of Tetuán, though the prelate’s identity has not been preserved.
The name evokes a real orchard. Here, on the slopes falling toward the north of Madrid, lay an irrigated estate owned by a bishop. Of exactly which prelate no record remains: his name was lost, though the memory of the place kept his title.
The orchard had a farmhouse with the owner’s name carved over the entrance arch, and it grew far larger than this short travesía suggests today: it reached almost to Cuatro Caminos. Over time it changed hands, down to the Augustinian fathers, who built their school there. Part of that land became the park that still carries the name Huerta del Obispo, between Villamil and the Paseo de la Dirección.
The Travesía Huerta del Obispo was born of the broken topography of Berruguete. Before the houses arrived, a path lined with almond trees crossed this ground, an outskirts Madrid that Blasco Ibáñez portrayed when this was still open field.