Calle de Estanislao Figueras

Estanislao Figueras y Moragas was born in Barcelona in 1819, practised law in Tarragona and entered politics early, first among the progressives and then in federal republicanism alongside Pi y Margall. Settled in Madrid, he founded the newspaper La Igualdad to spread his ideas. His name became tied to a date: on 11 February 1873, when Amadeo I abdicated and the Cortes proclaimed the Republic, Figueras took charge of the executive and became the first president of the First Spanish Republic. The post lasted barely four months, caught between the Carlist war, the Cuban insurrection and the republicans' own quarrels. Exhausted, he is said to have blurted in Catalan that he was fed up with everyone present, himself included. On 10 June 1873 he left the post and crossed the border into France without telling a soul. The street belongs to those opened in Argüelles after the Estación del Norte was built, a district first peopled by railway workers. It has borne his name since 1886.