Calle de San Germán

The name recalls Saint Germanus of Constantinople, patriarch of the imperial city in the early eighth century, remembered for defending the veneration of sacred images when the emperor ordered them destroyed. He chose to give up his see rather than sign the condemnation of the icons. The street was already called San Germán in the nineteenth century, when this was dusty outskirts and the road died out in open country. In 1966 the parish of San Germán rose here, which settled the dedication for good. There was a long parenthesis: around 1953 it was renamed General Yagüe, and in 2017 the City Council restored its original name. In the late nineteenth century the wretched neighbourhood of Patolas huddled beside a brickworks: some fifty residents without a single street lamp, among embankments and small yards. The cholera of 1885 found easy ground here. No trace of those shacks remains beneath the blocks, Azca and the great department store that came later.