Calle de Juan de Austria

The name remembers Don Juan de Austria (1547-1578), illegitimate son of Emperor Charles V. He was born in Regensburg and raised far from court until Philip II recognized him as a brother, though without granting him the title of Highness. Barely past twenty, he was given command of the fleet, and on 7 October 1571 he led the Holy League’s fleet against the Turks in the Gulf of Lepanto. The victory made him a hero of Christendom. He died at thirty-one in Flanders. The stretch between Eloy Gonzalo and Santa Feliciana was once called Calle de Arango, after Andrés Arango, one of the promoters of the Chamberí district. In 1964 the whole axis was unified under the name of the victor of Lepanto.