Calle del Conde de Serrallo

The title that names the street was born of a battle. When the African War broke out, in November 1859, General Rafael Echagüe y Bermingham was among the first to set foot on African soil beside Ceuta. His men took the Serrallo heights, a fortified redoubt a few kilometers from the city, and held the position there despite Moroccan attacks. From that renown came the reward: in 1871 Amadeo I granted him the title of Count of El Serrallo. The street belongs by full right to its neighborhood: the whole Tetuán district takes its name from the battle fought in that same campaign. A mistaken explanation circulates: that “serrallo” refers to a sultan’s harem. The word means that in other contexts, but here it names the fortified redoubt beside Ceuta where Echagüe won his count’s crown.