Calle de Mazarredo
Recalls José de Mazarredo, an eighteenth-century naval officer from Bilbao and Minister of the Navy, held to be the finest Spanish naval commander of his time.
José de Mazarredo (Bilbao, 1745 – Madrid, 1812) rose to admiral and led the Spanish Navy at a moment when the fleet had its prestige at stake against England. Those who study him hold that, had he commanded the squadrons, the defeats at Cape St. Vincent and Trafalgar might not have happened: he mastered tactics and hydrography like few others and trained much of the officer corps of his generation.
His career had its shadows. His restraint during the Zamacolada revolt in Bilbao displeased the court and earned him exile. When war broke out, he served Joseph I Bonaparte as director general of the Navy, which made him a collaborator in the eyes of many countrymen. Even so, he kept the ships of Ferrol from falling into French hands.
Calle de Mazarredo, in the Imperial district, keeps an industrial trace: at numbers 7 and 9 a power station was built around 1897 to serve the southern railway of Madrid. The building escaped demolition and today houses a technology campus.