Calle de Mira el Sol

Calle de Mira el Sol runs down from calle de Embajadores to the little square of Campillo del Mundo Nuevo, in the heart of the Rastro. Its name has never changed: it already appears on Texeira’s 1656 map. It comes from a winter Madrid spent nearly in darkness. The rains began on 29 October 1439 and did not stop until January 1440, causing the greatest flood ever remembered of the Manzanares. For months the sky was barely seen. When it finally cleared, the neighbours gathered on the rise cried “Mira el sol!” (“Look at the sun!”), and the phrase stuck to the place. The same flood named the neighbouring Mira el Río Alta and Mira el Río Baja. Commerce came with the Rastro: for centuries the street was the realm of ironmongers and scrap-iron dealers, until in the 20th century the scrap gave way to film and collectors' stalls.