Calle del General Oráa
It honours Marcelino Oráa Lecumberri (Beriáin, Navarre, 1788–1851), an Isabelline general who fought in the Peninsular War under Espoz y Mina and commanded the Army of the Centre during the First Carlist War. The city opened the street on 18 July 1880 in the second phase of the Ensanche, among the streets dedicated to 19th-century liberal soldiers and politicians.
The calle del General Oráa was opened on 18 July 1880, when the Ensanche was beginning to spread northward. Its extension to the Paseo de la Castellana came in the early 20th century.
There was a moment of doubt over the name. A 1906 map recorded the stretch between Diego de León and Serrano as calle de Vicente López, after the court painter. The name never took hold, and Oráa ended up prevailing from end to end.
Marcelino Oráa Lecumberri started out as a Navarrese guerrilla during the Peninsular War. His soldiers called him “the Grandfather”; the Carlists dubbed him “Grey Wolf.” His most famous episode was the siege of Morella in August 1838: he assembled more than 20,000 men and 18 guns against the Carlist stronghold and still failed to take it, at a cost of some 2,000 liberal casualties. The defeat did not cut short his career, which led him to governor-general of the Philippines and minister of War.
Its names
- Calle de Vicente Lópezc. 1906
Sources (6)
- Calle del General Oráa — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- Marcelino Oráa — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- Sitio de Morella — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- Historias del Distrito. La calle General Oráa [I] — dsalamanca.es
- La fallida reconquista de Morella por el ejército del general Oráa — Maestrazgo Carlista
- Marcelino Oráa — Senado de España, historia parlamentaria