Plaza del Amanecer en Méndez Álvaro
A landscaped square created in 1990 next to Méndez Álvaro, with a poetic name evoking dawn whose motive went unrecorded.
The name evokes the first light of day, but no record survives of why it was chosen. The Plaza del Amanecer en Méndez Álvaro was created in 1990, when south-east Arganzuela still mixed warehouses, rail lines and plots under redevelopment. Its surname ties it to the calle de Méndez Álvaro; the square, by contrast, skipped any tribute and settled for an open word.
It works as a small landscaped breather. At one end stands an ornamental fountain named Amanecer: two stacked basins, a trapezoidal one below and a circular one above, with a central jet ringed by arcing spouts. The water, benches and trees give it the feel of a neighbourhood courtyard in an area long dominated by industry, where office and residential towers now rise.