Avenida de Brasil

The name pays tribute to the Republic of Brazil, the largest country in South America, and joins the handful of Madrid streets the city set aside for the republics across the Atlantic. The date and the exact reason for the choice were never documented. The place-name itself comes from pau-brasil, a reddish-wooded tree that Portuguese sailors found on the Atlantic coast in the early 16th century, prized in Europe for the dye extracted from it. The Avenida de Brasil runs along the edge of Castillejos, in the heart of the city’s financial district. It skirts the AZCA complex, the block of skyscrapers built around the Torre Picasso and the Torre Europa. Offices dominate by day; by night it gathers a strip of bars so lively that the city council declared it a special noise-protection zone. On one side lie its gardens, a green pause between the traffic and the glass towers.