Calle de Manuel González Longoria

Manuel González-Longoria y Cuervo was born in Asturias and emigrated to Cuba, where he built his fortune in Holguín. He returned to Spain a prosperous “indiano” and split his life between Oviedo and the capital, now a financier of weight. He chaired the Banco Español de Crédito, the future Banesto, from 1905 to 1912, and had earlier been a conservative deputy. His taste for carved stone survives in the mansion he commissioned in 1888, one of the stately residences with which the turn-of-the-century bourgeoisie wrote itself into the map of Madrid. The surname echoes a more famous building, the Art Nouveau palace on Calle de Fernando VI, the work of a nephew, Javier González-Longoria.