Calle Marqués de Zurgena
The street takes its name from the Marquisate of Zurgena, a title created by Alfonso XIII on 22 April 1920 in favour of María del Carmen Silvela y Castelló, daughter of the Liberal politician Luis Silvela y Casado. The street runs through the Recoletos neighbourhood, in the Salamanca district, within the Ensanche grid designed by the 1860 Castro plan.
Calle Marqués de Zurgena bears the name of a title that the man who earned it hardly ever used. The king created it by royal decree on 22 April 1920 to reward Luis Silvela y Casado, but granted it in favour of his daughter. Silvela lived eight more years without ever bearing it: he died on 22 April 1928, exactly eight years to the day after its creation.
The marquisate honoured a long career. Silvela, a lawyer and journalist of the Liberal Party and a nephew of Francisco Silvela, roamed the electoral map of Spain as a member of parliament, served twice briefly as mayor of Madrid and held several ministries. The title’s name comes not from him but from a village: Zurgena, at the mouth of the Almanzora Valley, in Almería.
The street also holds a crossing of honours with a certain geographical wit. A 2014 municipal agreement traced the boundaries of Plaza de Margaret Thatcher between Calle Marqués de Zurgena, Calle Goya and Paseo de la Castellana, so that the Liberal politician from Almería ends up cornered with the British prime minister.