Calle de Bolivia

The name leads to the heart of South America. Bolivia evokes the Andean country that took that name in 1825 in honour of Simón Bolívar, the liberator who sealed its independence. The street does not recall the man but the whole nation, and it does so because it belongs to a sector laid out as a map of Spanish America. This part of the Chamartín district was built up in the 20th century over former market gardens. Those who designed its blocks devoted much of the street map to countries and cities across the Atlantic, so that a walk here means crossing an American geography planted among Madrid’s buildings.