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 county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

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

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

have lived there. Moratalaz is on east of

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

. 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 (145) * Horcajo (142) * Marroquina (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, Melendi, 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 with the then unincorporated village of Vallecas. The Colonia del Ferrocarril was a housing project in the 1960s that was developed in Moratalaz. The

- Arganda del Rey 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 1970s, but nowadays it is 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 can refer to: * Something related to the Valencian Community ( Valencian Country) in Spain * Something related to the city of Valencia * Something related to the province of Valencia in Spain * Something related to the old Kingdom of ...

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 British reference book published annually, listi ...

for the largest

paella Paella (, , , , ; ) is a rice dish originally from the Valencian Community. ''Paella'' is regarded as one of the community's identifying symbols. It is one of the best-known dishes in Spanish cuisine. The dish takes its name from the wide, sha ...

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

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

, of chicken and rabbit, of vegetables, of virgin

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

, of salt, of pimentón (smoked paprika), of annatto and a kilogram of ground saffron 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 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