Calle del General Arrando

José Arrando Ballester was born in Tales, in the province of Castellón, in 1815, and spent his adult life in uniform. He fought on the liberal side in the three Carlist Wars that swept across Spain through the nineteenth century, reached the rank of lieutenant general and, at the end of his career, served as deputy and senator. He died in Madrid in 1893. The street was laid out in the second half of the century, within the expansion that Carlos María de Castro designed for Madrid. It was not born with the general’s name: when it opened it was dedicated to Isabel Colbrand, a Madrid-born soprano, muse and wife of the composer Gioachino Rossini. On 20 December 1895 the town hall replaced the singer’s name with the soldier’s. The swinging did not end there. Between 1941 and 1980 it was called General Goded, after the soldier who led the July 1936 uprising in Barcelona. In 1980 it recovered the name of General Arrando.