Calle Condesa de Santamarca

Carlota de Santamarca y Donato (1849-1914) inherited from her father, a banker of the Madrid bourgeoisie that grew up around the court of Isabella II, the title of Countess of Santamarca. Her marriage to Juan de Zabala, a lieutenant general and Duke of Nájera, added a long list of titles and a prominent place in the salons of the capital. Widowed from 1910 and childless, she arranged that her fortune should serve to raise and educate the orphaned and poor children of Madrid. From that wish came the Santamarca Foundation, which built nearby a school-orphanage in a Neo-Mudéjar and Neo-Gothic style, completed in 1928 in what is now the setting of the Parque Berlín. To the institution she also left her painting collection, more than two hundred works with names such as Goya and Luca Giordano. The street, a short one in the grid of Ciudad Jardín colonies, bears the name by which she herself wished to be remembered.