Calle del Saliente

Saliente is the point on the horizon where the sun appears, what has traditionally been called the east, the orient or the levant. The word comes from salir (to rise, to go out), and names the place where the sun comes up each morning. Applying it to a street fits the logic of the neighborhood around it. Calle del Saliente belongs to Estrella, at the northeastern edge of the Retiro. The Urbis property company raised housing blocks here from 1957 onward, on land tied to the La Estrella insurance company, from which the neighborhood is said to take its name. The street layout turned to the heavens: through the area run plaza de los Astros and the streets of Estrella Polar, Lira, Pez Volador and Sirio. Within that set, Saliente contributes the reference to the sun’s daily movement, east against west. No record survives of who chose this particular street or with what intention.