Plaza del Oeste

Plaza del Oeste points to a direction and little else: the west of a small cluster of open spaces that appeared when La Ventilla shed its skin. It sits in Almenara, north of Tetuán. For decades this was a place of low houses and self-built homes, until redevelopment tore down the old and raised new blocks, avenues and green spaces. That redesign gave rise to several squares named for the compass points: beside this one stand the Plaza del Este and the Plaza del Norte, linked by Matilde Landa. The compass served as the street map. It is among the smaller of the group: a few trees and an almost rectangular shape that works more as a roundabout than a square, a breather between recent blocks. There is no record of any deeper reason, no figure, no old estate. Only its position on the plan.