In full La Latina neighborhood in Madridthere is one of those streets loaded with history so characteristic of the city: the Cava low. Today he is famous for his bars of tapas, inns and restaurants, but his name hides An old secret between the numbers 10 and 20 of the street. There is a track of why this route is called that.
Unlike what everyone believes, the term “cava” does not refer here to sparkling winebut to a Zanja or defensive pit. During the Middle Ages, Madrid was a walled village and needed protection systems in front of possible attacks. Between the numbers 10 and 20 of the current low cava, one of those pits excavated at the foot of the wall was precisely.
The story behind Cava Baja and La Cava Alta
Madrid has gone through hundreds of urban transformations and without a doubt little or nothing has to do with the city that existed 500 years ago. And is that over time, That defensive pit was filled and leveling, But the memory of its existence was recorded in the name of the street. Thus, “Cava Baja” refers to the lower section of the pit, while the neighbor High quarry It marked the superior.
In this concrete section there was, in addition, one of the Secondary doors for access to the town, known as Puerta de Moros, that connected with the suburbs. Therefore, the area became very soon instead of transit for merchants and travelers. Between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, many of the ancient stately houses of La Latina began to be converted into Mesons, and the low cava became a hotbed.
The space between the current numbers 10 and 20 was, in fact, one of the main foci of this development, since there were famous lodgings as The guitar inn or the dragon inn.
