The Ronda de Atocha is a thoroughfare in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, Spain. It is part of the rim of streets rounding up the city historical centre, following the layout of the Walls of Philip IV.

History and description

Starting in the

Plaza del Emperador Carlos V Plaza del Emperador Carlos V (''Emperor Charles V square'') is a square in the city of Madrid. It is named after Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who also reigned in Spain as Charles I. However, it is referred to as Plaza de Atocha, because it is w ...

and ending in the , the ronda de Atocha conforms a stretch of the southern limits of the

Centro Centro may refer to: Places Brazil *Centro, Santa Maria, a neighborhood in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro, Porto Alegre, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil *Centro (Duque de Caxias), a neighborhood of Duq ...

district. The Ronda occupies part of the layout of the ancient Walls of Philip IV. The ronda already existed when the (1656) was created. The area was refurbished during the reign of

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person t ...

(late 18th century), and the Ronda de Atocha became part of a trident of forested boulevards (along the and the ) that followed the ''

patte d'oie The French term ''patte d'oie'' (literally "goose foot", in English sometimes referred to as a "crow's foot") describes a design whereby three, four, or five or more straight roads or paths radiate out from a central point, so called from its res ...

'' configuration in vogue at the time. Following the end of the 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War, during the

Francoist dictatorship Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Sp ...

, the name of the Ronda de Atocha was changed to "''General Primo de Rivera''", in reference to

Miguel Primo de Rivera Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquess of Estella (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a dictator, aristocrat, and military officer who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during Spain's Restoration era. He deepl ...

. After 1968, the thoroughfare featured one of the three overpasses of so-called "

scalextric Scalextric is a brand of slot car racing sets which first appeared in the late 1950s. The Scalextric were first invented by engineer B. Fred Francis, when he added an electric motor to the ''Scalex'' tin cars that were produced by Minimodels Lt ...

" of Atocha, that infamously became one of the largest hotspots of air pollution in the entire city. On 25 January 1980, during the municipal government of Enrique Tierno Galván, the

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

voted in favour of returning the name of the thoroughfare back to "Ronda de Atocha" along a wider change of another 26 street names connected to the Francoist dictatorship or the Civil War. Meanwhile, the dismantling of the "scalextric" started in 1985. Works were completed in 1986.

References

;Informational notes ;Citations ;Bibliography * * * * * {{authority control Streets in Madrid Embajadores neighborhood, Madrid Arganzuela