Moratalaz is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It is a well-known area because musicians such as

Melendi Ramón Melendi Espina (born 21 January 1979), known as Melendi, is a Spanish singer-songwriter. His specialties are rock, flamenco, and rumba styles. Early life He was born in Oviedo, Asturias. He went to class with Formula One race car driv ...

and

Alejandro Sanz Alejandro Sánchez Pizarro, better known as Alejandro Sanz (; born 18 December 1968), is a Spanish musician, singer and composer. Sanz has won 22 Latin Grammy Awards and four Grammy Awards. He has received the Latin Grammy for Latin Grammy Awar ...

have lived there. Moratalaz is on east of

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. It has of surface area and is delineated by the highways of M-30 to the west, M-40 to the east, M23 to the north and A-3 to the south.

Geography

Subdivision

The district is administratively divided into seven wards (''Barrios''): *

Fontarrón Fontarrón is an administrative neighborhood (''barrio'') of Madrid belonging to the district of Moratalaz. It is 0.964574 km² in size. References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fontarron Wards of Madrid Moratalaz ...

(145) * Horcajo (142) *

Marroquina Marroquina is an administrative neighborhood (''barrio'') of Madrid belonging to the district of Moratalaz Moratalaz is a district of Madrid, Spain. It is a well-known area because musicians such as Melendi and Alejandro Sanz have lived there. M ...

(143) * Media Legua (144) * Pavones (141) * Vinateros (146)

History

Moratalaz arose as a commuter suburb of

during the 1960s. Famous inhabitants of the district have been

Elvira Lindo Elvira Lindo (born 23 January 1962 in Cádiz, Spain) is a Spanish journalist and writer. At the age of 12 Lindo moved to Madrid, where she studied journalism at Complutense University of Madrid. She did not get her degree, as she began to work ...

, el Dioni,

, "Cleanhead" Joe McGaha, and Letizia Ortiz. Before 1960, Moratalaz was an agglomeration of barely 40 houses with only one paved street. It was located midway on a road that connected Madrid's main cemetery

Cementerio de la Almudena The ''Cementerio de Nuestra Señora de La Almudena'' ( en, Our Lady of Almudena Cemetery), former ''Necrópolis del Este'' (East cemetery) is a cemetery in Madrid, Spain. It is the largest in Madrid and one of the largest in Western Europe. The nu ...

with the then unincorporated village of

Vallecas Vallecas was a municipality of Spain that disappeared as such in 1950, when its annexation to the Municipality of Madrid was effectuated. Nowadays it is a large neighborhood of Madrid composed of two districts: Puente de Vallecas (population ...

. The Colonia Del Ferrocarril was a housing project in the '60s that was developed in Moratalaz. The

Arganda del Rey Arganda del Rey () is a municipality and city of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. Geography Located in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula, the city lies at roughly 613 metres above sea level, not far from the junction of the J ...

train stopped there, and Moratalaz kept growing. A military property gave birth to what today is one of the main streets of the district, Calle Del Pico De Los Artilleros. And an old road connecting

with Castilla La Mancha gave rise to Moratalaz's main avenue, Camino De Los Vinateros. There was extraordinary and uncontrolled development in the 1970s, thanks to the programs of the Ministry of the Housing and the construction company Urbis. That led to the typical wide avenues and open spaces of Moratalaz, where traffic lanes are separated from houses by a wide green zone in between. That concept was not very popular in the '70s, but nowadays it's much appreciated, as it's an excellent measure against noise pollution. The distinctive emblem of Public Housing during Franco's dictatorship (a yoke traversed with arrows) can still be found in the older blocks dating from that era.

Valencian Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the Carche, El Carche comarca in Región de Murcia, Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance lan ...

Antonio Galbis holds the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for the largest

paella Paella (, , , , , ) is a rice dish originally from Valencian Community, Valencia. While non-Spaniards commonly view it as Spain's national dish, Spaniards almost unanimously consider it to be a dish from the Valencian community, Valencian region ...

that 100,000 people in Moratalaz enjoyed in 2001. Several giant cranes, rakes, a paella pan of , of

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

, of chicken and rabbit, of vegetables, of virgin

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...

, of salt, of pimentón (smoked paprika), of

annatto Annatto ( or ) is an orange-red condiment and food coloring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree (''Bixa orellana''), native to tropical America. It is often used to impart a yellow or orange color to foods, but sometimes also for its flav ...

and a kilogram of ground

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent i ...

were used.

Population

In this area live 106,344 people, 9,942 of which are immigrants according to the 2006 census.

Main sights

Moratalaz is famous for its large parks and open spaces. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) maintains a temple in the district. It is the only Mormon temple in Spain.

Transportation

Moratalaz is served by

Metro De Madrid The Madrid Metro (Spanish: ''Metro de Madrid'') is a rapid transit system serving the city of Madrid, capital of Spain. The system is the 14th longest rapid transit system in the world, with a total length of 293 km (182 mi). Its gro ...

line 9. It has three stops in the district: Vinateros, Artilleros and Pavones; a fourth station, Estrella, lies under the M-30 motorway between Moratalaz and the Retiro district. Additionally, Moratalaz is served by several bus lines and a night bus, connecting with the city center thanks to the bus line 20 as well as the line 71. Also, the train lines closest to Moratalaz are line C1 as well as line C10.

References

External links

{{Districts of Madrid Districts of Madrid