Calle Conde de Vilches

The County of Vilches was created by Isabella II on 8 December 1848 in favour of the Coruña-born politician and financier Gonzalo José de Vilches y Parga. The street most likely bears the name of the 2nd count, Gonzalo de Vilches y Llano (1842–1918), vice-president of the Senate and last holder of the county, named after his death during the development of La Guindalera.

Isabella II created the County of Vilches in 1848 for Gonzalo José de Vilches y Parga, a Coruña-born lawyer and businessman close to the moderate party. In 1844 he helped found the Banco de Isabel II alongside the Marquis of Salamanca, and ended his career as a lifetime senator. His wife left a deeper mark than the title itself. Amalia de Llano y Dotres, a Barcelona woman who died in Madrid in 1874, wrote and frequented the intellectual salons of Isabella’s reign. Federico de Madrazo painted her portrait in 1853 for 4,000 reales, half his usual fee. That canvas has hung in the Prado since 1944 and is today the best-known thing about the surname that named the street. The second and last count, Gonzalo de Vilches y Llano, was vice-president of the Senate in 1914 and died in 1918 without issue, so the title lapsed with him. The Calle Conde de Vilches arose from a Council custom: naming the streets of new colonies after people already deceased. No record certifying it has been found.

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