In some parts of Spain, its citizens are known by a nickname, a kind of gentilicio that is not the official one, as for example in the case of the Madrilenians, who are also known as “cats”. Today we tell you why people from Madrid are called cats , what is the origin of this unique gentilicio that is known throughout the country.
There are various legends and stories around this nickname of “cats” for the people of Madrid, in any case very similar and with very specific details about the reason, the place and the year in which it originated.
The reason why people from Madrid are called cats
Emir Muhammad I ordered in 852 the construction of a walled fortress next to the Manzanares River, from which the entire valley could be controlled and a citadel would be built. That place was baptized with the name of Mayrit and was the origin of what we know today as Madrid.
In the following two centuries of Muslim rule, there were several attempts to conquer the citadel of Mayrit, until it was finally achieved in the year 1085 , which determined that the inhabitants of that place began to be called cats.
In that year 1085, the troops of King Alfonso VI of León reached Mayrit, and achieved the conquest thanks to a soldier who climbed the walls of the wall and thus reached the tower of the fortress and changed the Muslim flag for the Christian one. The companions of this brave soldier said that he had climbed like a cat, and in homage to his feat he began to be called that, so much so that it even became the surname of his entire saga.
In honor of this feat, which became the key to Mayrit’s future and her subsequent conversion in Madrid, everyone who was from that place was called cats. It is curious that the exact name of that brave soldier has never been known .
