Calle de Goiri

Behind this name lie a man and a fire. Manuel María de Goiri watched a building burn on the Puerta del Sol and left with an idea: that Madrid’s property owners insure one another against fire, spreading the loss instead of leaving the unlucky one ruined. On 30 November 1822 the Mutual Fire Insurance Society for the houses of Madrid was set up, and on its opening day owners had already signed on for a value near seventy million reales. It was a new mechanism: neighbors putting up a common fund so that, when a house burned, the blow wouldn’t fall on a single family. The street bearing his surname runs through Bellas Vistas, from San Raimundo to past Fernando Ossorio, a step from the parish of San Francisco de Sales.