Calle de la Estrella Polar

The name comes not from a saint or a statesman, but from the sky. The calle de la Estrella Polar belongs to a whole neighborhood christened with stars and constellations, built by the developer Urbis over land near the Abroñigal stream through the 1950s. The star that names the street is Polaris, at the end of the tail of the Little Dipper. Almost directly above the terrestrial north pole, it barely moves through the night while the rest of the sky turns around it. That is why for centuries it guided navigators and travelers: locating it was enough to know where north lay. Around it, the neighborhood completes the star map. Sirio, Perseo, Cruz del Sur, Los Astros and Pez Volador trace a firmament of asphalt between the Retiro park and Doctor Esquerdo. The calle de la Estrella Polar runs through it until it meets Sirio, the brightest star in the night sky, neighbor to the one that never changes place.