Calle de Esteban Terradas
It honors Esteban Terradas Illa (1883–1950), a Catalan physicist, mathematician, and engineer who introduced the theory of relativity to Spain and founded the aeronautical institute that now bears his name.
Esteban Terradas Illa was born in Barcelona in 1883 and died in Madrid in 1950. He held doctorates in Exact and Physical Sciences, was a civil and an industrial engineer, and taught mathematical physics, optics, and electricity at the universities of Barcelona and Madrid.
In 1908, at twenty-five, he was the first Spaniard to set out Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, and years later he invited Einstein to Barcelona. The Civil War drove him into exile in Argentina, where he taught in Buenos Aires. He returned to Spain in 1941 and the following year promoted the national aeronautical technical institute, which after his death took his name. The calle de Esteban Terradas runs through the Castilla neighborhood, whose streets gather scientists and soldiers around the plaza de Castilla.