Calle del Duque de Tovar

The title was held by Rodrigo de Figueroa y Torres (1866-1929), whom Alfonso XIII raised to first Duke of Tovar in 1906. He belonged to one of the most influential families in Restoration politics: he was the younger brother of Álvaro de Figueroa, the Count of Romanones, who went on to head the Council of Ministers. Rodrigo built his own record as a liberal deputy, Madrid councillor, senator and, for a few weeks in 1909, civil governor of the capital. His life breaks the mold of the notable. He studied medicine, took up sculpture and painting, kept a herd of fighting bulls and, in 1904, bought Gedeón, one of the sharpest satirical magazines of its time, so the aristocrat ended up running a publication that made its living needling the powerful. The street lies in the Imperial district of Arganzuela, an area whose street names gathered several noble titles.