Calle de Santa Cruz de Marcenado

Calle de Santa Cruz de Marcenado runs between Calle del Acuerdo and Mártires de Alcalá, in the Universidad district. For centuries it was a boundary: until 1868 it marked the western edge of the neighbourhood, because Philip IV’s wall ran along here, with its Conde Duque gate. The street breathes the military. Along its west side three army institutions followed one another on the same plot: the Seminary of Nobles of 1725, turned into a military hospital in 1809, and later the General Staff College, today the Army War College. Across the way, the old Colegio de Areneros, a work by Antonio Palacios, now houses the ICAI-ICADE university. The title that names it belonged to Álvaro de Navia-Osorio, a soldier who thought about war like few others: he was the first Spanish theorist to study it through philosophy, ethics, and diplomacy. His Military Reflections reached Napoleon’s library and served as official reading at West Point. He died on campaign in 1732, beheaded by Algerian forces after riding out from the fortifications of Oran to relieve a besieged detachment.