Calle del Marqués de Leis

The name brings to Castillejos a noble title that came from Galicia. The marquisate of Leis began as a Neapolitan dignity in the days of Charles III and was slow to gain ground in Spain: not until 1844 did Isabella II recognize it on Spanish soil. Its first confirmed holder was José María Montenegro y Gago, born in Pontevedra in the late eighteenth century. He and his son Antonio held a senator’s seat in the Cortes of the nineteenth century. Leis points to Galician land, to the estates of Pontevedra where the marquisal house had its roots. The marquises spent long spells at the pazo del Carmen, on the La Tablada de Campolongo estate, whose place name came from the cut timber that was let down there toward the river to be shipped out to sea. Why Madrid’s street plan chose this title for a street in Tetuán has not been documented. Calle del Marqués de Leis traces barely two hundred meters, far from those Galician manor houses.