Calle de José Castán Tobeñas

Whole generations of Spanish lawyers studied Civil Law from one book, and they called it simply “the Castán.” Behind that nickname is José Castán Tobeñas (Zaragoza, 1889 – Madrid, 1969), the jurist this street in Castillejos is named for. He won the Civil Law chair in 1918 and taught at several universities before settling at the summit of the judiciary. His Derecho Civil español, común y foral, expanded into a multivolume treatise, was required reading for half a century: anyone who wanted to be a lawyer passed through its pages first. He presided over the Supreme Court from 1945 to 1967, longer than anyone else in that post, in a tenure that coincided entirely with the Franco dictatorship. The street runs near the Plaza de Castilla, among office blocks and ordinary doorways, with nothing to reveal the man whose manual so many nervous students held before an exam.