Calle de Alberto Aguilera

Before it bore a mayor’s name, this street was the paseo de Areneros, a dusty road that climbed from the old Puerta de Fuencarral up to the San Bernardino gate. The name recalled the sand-diggers who dug sand from those empty lots north of the city. In 1903 the city replaced it with that of Alberto Aguilera. Aguilera was a politician of the Liberal Party and served three times as mayor of Madrid. He promoted the network of boulevards and the development of the ensanche, and gave impetus to the Parque del Oeste. That is why one of the arteries of that same ensanche ended up taking his name. Today old and new sit side by side. At number 20 stands a 1920s mansion by Luis Bellido, now home to the Casa de México. A few meters away survives the filling station built in 1927 by Casto Fernández-Shaw, an early example of Madrid rationalism.