Plaza del Perú

The square honours Peru, the Andean republic of the old viceroyalty, and fits the idea of the district: in Nueva España and neighbouring Hispanoamérica the street map gathers the names of Latin American countries and capitals. Among streets dedicated to Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala, the Plaza del Perú marks the point where the Avenida de Pío XII gives way to the Calle del Príncipe de Vergara. The poet Gloria Fuertes lived in this same neighbourhood, remembered today with a garden bearing her name beside the square, as did the philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal. On the square itself stands a municipal sports centre that for years the locals called the Plaza del Perú sports hall.