Calle del Marqués de Lema

The title of Marquis of Lema leads to Salvador Bermúdez de Castro y Díez (1817-1883), born in Jerez de la Frontera. He began as a Romantic poet and soon entered diplomacy, with postings in Mexico, Naples and Paris. History interested him as much as politics: he left a study of Antonio Pérez, the secretary of Philip II whose downfall shook the court. The title did not die with him. His nephew and heir, Salvador Bermúdez de Castro y O’Lawlor (1863-1945), 2nd Marquis of Lema, went further: he was mayor of Madrid in 1903 and minister of state under Alfonso XIII between 1913 and 1921, the years of the First World War and Spanish neutrality. That is why the two are sometimes confused on the same sign. The street runs through Vallehermoso and is barely over two hundred metres long.