Calle de Salustiano Olózaga

The street was opened on the land of the Copacabana convent, suppressed by the Mendizábal disentailment in 1836. At its western end the palace of the Marquis of Salamanca would eventually rise. Its first documented name was calle de la Independencia, and when Olózaga’s name arrived it came by transfer: until then it had belonged to today’s calle de la Princesa. Salustiano de Olózaga left his mark on 19th-century Spanish politics. He took part in drafting the 1837 Constitution and came to head the government in November 1843. It did not last: Isabella II dismissed him after accusing him of pressuring her to sign the decree dissolving the Cortes, and the episode pushed him into exile. He returned to the front line with the Revolution of 1868 and led the commission that drafted the 1869 Constitution. The street’s name followed the swings of each regime. During the First Republic it became calle de Estella, in 1940 the Francoist council renamed it calle de los Héroes del Diez de Agosto, and only in 1981 did it recover Olózaga’s name.