Calle de los Voluntarios Catalanes
Recalls the corps of Catalan volunteers who fought in the African War of 1859-1860, the campaign that took Tetuán and gave the whole district its name.
The name comes from the same war that named the entire district. In 1859 Spain went to war against Morocco, and among those forces a corps of volunteers recruited in Catalonia was formed, tied to General Prim. The Battle of Tetuán was fought in February 1860 and that battalion played its part in the combat.
When the army returned, it camped on the heights north of Madrid, and around it grew the outlying district still called Tetuán de las Victorias. That is why the local streets are strewn with echoes of the African war. Voluntarios Catalanes honors the corps of civilians who enlisted on their own to march to the front.