Calle de Agustín de Betancourt

The name recalls Agustín de Betancourt y Molina, born in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, in 1758. His curiosity took him through experimental physics and metallurgy between Paris and London, and from there to a life as a roving engineer that ended in the service of Tsar Alexander I, in Saint Petersburg, where he died in 1824. His Spanish mark weighs more than his traveler’s life. He founded the Corps of Road and Canal Engineers and, in 1802, the school that would train those who laid out the country’s roads, bridges, and canals. He also promoted the optical telegraph in Spain. Some nickname him the Canarian Da Vinci, for the range of machines that came from his mind. The street keeps another, more earthly memory. It is what remains of the old Paseo del Hipódromo, the path that skirted the Castellana racecourse, the center of elegant Madrid life until its demolition in 1933. Horses trotted here and ladies strolled with parasols.