Calle de Anastasio Herrero

The name points to a person, Anastasio Herrero, but of who that man was no reliable record survives. The reason for the dedication is not documented, nor a date, nor a trade or merit. Whoever walks calle de Anastasio Herrero today reads a name with no face behind it. The street belongs to old Cuatro Caminos, within the Tetuán district, an area that grew north of Madrid when the city outgrew its old bounds. The neighbourhood took shape with modest blocks of working-class housing. Many of its streets took the names of private individuals in those decades of rapid building, without the street records keeping the reason. Today the stretch holds a detail the passer-by recognises at once: at numbers 5 and 7 stands the Central Mosque of Madrid, opened in 1988, a few steps from the Cuatro Caminos roundabout.