Calle del Príncipe de Vergara
The street honors Baldomero Espartero (1793-1879), a liberal general who led the Isabelline troops in the First Carlist War and served as regent of Spain from 1840 to 1843. The title of Prince of Vergara was granted by Amadeo I on 2 January 1872 in memory of the 1839 Convention of Vergara. The street lost the name in 1939, renamed General Mola, and recovered it in 1981 under Mayor Enrique Tierno Galván.
A street named after Baldomero Espartero’s last noble title. He was the foremost military leader of Spanish liberalism. Born in Granátula de Calatrava in 1793, he won at Luchana in 1836 and in 1839 signed the Convention of Vergara, the pact that ended the First Carlist War in the north. From it came his princedom: Amadeo I granted it on 2 January 1872, a lifetime title that died with him in Logroño in 1879. That dignity lasted barely seven years.
The street arose from the 1860 Castro Plan as an axis of the northeastern expansion, and from 1863 the developer José de Salamanca urbanized the area until his surname passed to the whole district.
The street also changed sides. After Franco’s troops entered on 28 March 1939, the regime renamed it General Mola, and only in 1981 was the earlier name recovered. Walk it today and you follow an unbroken line of 4.2 kilometers, from Alcalá to the plaza del Perú.
Its names
- Príncipe de VergaraSegunda mitad del 19th century – 1936
- 18 de Julio1936–1939
- General Mola1939–1981
- Príncipe de Vergara1981 – presente