The Carabanchel of the colonies: XIX and XX centuries

After the success of the first tour of the oldest Carabanchel, I am now launching a second tour that will take us to know the Carabanchel of the 19th and 20th centuries . It will finally be the walk that takes us to the well-known Colonia de la Prensa .

The tour begins in the Plaza de Carabanchel from there, after an introduction, we will visit the parish of San Sebastián . Later, we will focus on the ancient Sombra street , where there are three important points: there was the Music Academy, the Salaberry tannery and , most importantly, the house that saw one of the most important adoptive carabancheleras in history grow up : the writer and deputy María Lejárraga.

In fact, María will appear in several sections of the route, since she lived and intensely described her childhood and adolescence in the old town of Carabanchel de Abajo.

We will leave Sombra Street in the direction of the old San Roque Street (today Padre Amigó) to admire Leandro Teresa's old slaughterhouse. We will then take María Odiaga to enter the Torres Garrido neighborhood (1955).

Our journey will continue towards Alba de Tormes street (one of the oldest in Carabanchel) to enter the Patilla park , where I will tell you about the Santa Cruz school, which we will see in the distance, and the Marquis of Ceriola , owner of the land. that today occupies that park.

Finally, we will continue through Alba de Torme s, while I introduce you to the Cuban Delights, the country house of the Count of Yumurí that at the end of the 19th century would be split in two to house it since 1910, in the part that remained closest to the town hall of Carabanchel de Abajo, known as the Press Colony.

With the arrival of this colony , the "New Carabanchel" arose, a neighborhood full of modernist houses that first welcomed journalists and later artists and poets, including Manuel Machado, brother of Antonio Machado. Today, with a somewhat more decadent air, the colony survives the passage of time and, as you can see, some of its palaces remain practically the same since they were built in the 1910-1920s.

The route ends at the exit of the neighborhood, at the famous arch that invites you to discover this jewel of modernist architecture that we owe, in large part, to the little-known architect Felipe Mario López Blanco.

See you on this new route!!