Plaza República del Salvador

The name pays tribute to El Salvador, the small Central American republic washed by the Pacific. The square falls squarely within the logic of the district: when Madrid built up these lands to the north of the city, its streets and squares were christened with the names of the Spanish-speaking American countries, and from that came the neighbourhood’s own name, Hispanoamérica. The square is little more than a roundabout where Serrano meets Herreros de Tejada and Jiloca, but it holds a surprise at its centre. On 6 November 2000, on the initiative of the Salvadoran embassy, a bronze sculpture by the Spaniard Juan de Ávalos was unveiled there: two hands reaching for each other, one anchored in the granite pedestal and the other suspended in the air, an allegory of the brotherhood between the two countries. The gesture echoes one of his most famous works, the tomb of the Lovers of Teruel, where the two reclining figures interlace their fingers without quite touching. Anyone crossing the roundabout will see those hands about to brush over the stone.