Calle de Fernando El Santo

The name recalls Ferdinand III of Castile (1199-1252), the monarch who reunited the crowns of Castile and León through his mother Berenguela’s inheritance and pushed the Christian frontier south with the taking of Córdoba, Jaén and Seville. He died in the last of these, where he lies in its cathedral. Rome raised him to the altars in 1671, and from that late sainthood comes the nickname the street fixes on him. The street was once Calle de Ariel, after a pelota court near the Castellana. The current name was registered on 7 May 1867, as the Ensanche was beginning to order this part of Chamberí. The short route runs from Paseo de la Castellana to Calle de Almagro and gathers an unusual concentration of embassies and mansions. At number 16 stands the mansion built by Carlos María de Castro, the engineer who drew the plan of the Ensanche and ended up living in the neighborhood he had helped design.