Calle de Samaria

The street takes its name from Samaria, the ancient capital of the northern kingdom of Israel from the 9th century BC. It belongs to the Niño Jesús neighbourhood, whose street plan, designed by Urbis in 1947, follows a biblical-geographical theme: Portal de Belén, Reyes Magos, Anunciación, Nazaret and Samaria as places from the New Testament story and the Holy Land.

Southeast of the Retiro, on some twenty-eight hectares that the 1946 town plan still set aside as green space, the Niño Jesús neighbourhood grew. In 1947 the property company Urbis commissioned the layout from the architect José Antonio Domínguez Salazar, and the first phase was ready around 1954. To name the streets, the geography of the New Testament was drawn on. Alongside Calle de Samaria stand the Calle Anunciación, the Calle Portal de Belén, the Calle Reyes Magos and the Avenida de Nazaret. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. It was founded around 870 BC by King Omri on a hill he bought from an owner named Šemer, and from that name came the Hebrew place name Šōmrōn. The city fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC, at the end of a long siege.

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