Calle de Martín de los Heros

Before becoming Martín de los Heros, this street was called simply Calle de Don Martín, because in the district no one needed a surname to know who was meant. The full name came when it was extended to Romero Robledo. Martín María de los Heros y de las Bárcenas was born around 1784 in the Carranza valley, in Biscay. A liberal by conviction, he fled into exile to escape Ferdinand VII’s absolutist repression. Back in Madrid he became minister of the interior between 1835 and 1836 and, in 1840, director of the National Library. His name and that of the neighbouring street tell of a friendship. Returning from exile, he shared a boarding house with Agustín Argüelles, the politician who names the whole district. Two liberals, two adjoining streets, a closeness that began in a lodging house on calle de Lope de Vega.