Calle del Planeta Tierra

The Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and here the streets look skyward. Calle del Planeta Tierra begins a short distance from the Madrid Planetarium, the domed building that projects stars inside Enrique Tierno Galván park, and shares its neighborhood with Avenida del Planetario, which names the whole strip. The land, next to Méndez Álvaro and the train tracks, had been an old quarry known as the Cerro de la Plata. The city turned it into a park opened in 1987 and raised there the planetarium that set the tone for the neighboring names. Christening a street with the name of the planet itself fit that gathering of heavenly bodies. Today it is a quiet street of homes and garages where a visitor can read the sign and realize that underfoot lies, at once, the planet and its name.