Pasaje Escudo

The Pasaje del Escudo belongs to the Estrella neighborhood, a development built in the mid-twentieth century where almost every street bears the name of a star or a constellation: Estrella Polar, Sirio, Lira, Cruz del Sur, Pez Austral, Pasaje del Can Mayor and Pasaje del Can Menor. The Shield is one of them. It is Scutum, Latin for the shield, one of the smallest constellations in the firmament, wedged over the Milky Way between the Eagle and the Serpent. The Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius mapped it around 1684 and at first called it Scutum Sobiescianum, in honor of King John III Sobieski, who in 1683 halted the Ottoman troops at the gates of Vienna. In time the tribute to the monarch fell off the star map and only the weapon remained: the Shield alone.