Calle de Lagasca

Few streets in the Ensanche changed names so often before settling on one. Lagasca opened on 28 April 1871, within the layout Carlos María de Castro devised for the new districts. Barely a year later, in 1872, the City Council renamed it Carolina Coronado, in honour of the poet from Extremadura who lived there. In that house Coronado hid the politician Emilio Castelar after the 1866 uprising at the San Gil barracks left him condemned to death. The dance of names went on: in 1873 it became del Genio del siglo, until on 6 July 1874 the plaque was fixed for good as Lagasca. Behind the sign stands Mariano Lagasca y Segura, a trained physician who became a disciple of Antonio José Cavanilles at the Royal Botanical Garden and ended up directing it in 1815. Politics cost him dearly: a deputy during the Liberal Triennium, he had to flee in 1823 when Ferdinand VII restored absolutism, losing his herbarium and years of work in the escape. He returned in 1834 to take up the Garden again, directing it until his death in Barcelona in 1839.