The Avenida de Asturias ("Avenue of Asturias") is a street in northwest Madrid, located in the district of Tetuán. A relatively recent urban development, opened in 2000, it hosts a multitudinous Sunday flea market since 2005.
It straddles along a E–W thalweg separating La Ventilla and Valdeacederas; with a difference in level between the maximum level at plaza de Castilla and the minimum level at the Paseo de la Dirección of about 32 metres (105ft).[1] The avenue, that starts in the plaza de Castilla and ends at its junction with the calle de Sinesio Delgado,[2] also links with the Paseo de la Dirección and the calle de Ginzo de Limia as major junctions.[3]
Its construction was part of the wider project for the reform of La Ventilla area, constituting the key axis of the latter.[4] The plot over which the street was built (along the very path of the former "calle de los Curtidos"),[5] was an area featuring high levels of urban decay.[6]
The reform of the area was passed through the modification of the 1985 Plan General de Ordenación Urbana (PGOU).[7] Several buildings works were carried out by the Instituto de la Vivienda de Madrid (IVIMA),[8] and the new street, with a total width of 58 metres (190ft),[9] was inaugurated in 2000.[10] The new housing has been described as rather "impersonal".[11]
The Sunday flea market (mercadillo) installed in the street in 2005 is one of the biggest flea markets in the city.[12][13]
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