Calle Otamendi

Four brothers born in San Sebastián in the second half of the 19th century left their mark on Madrid, and this short street in Bellas Vistas bears their surname. Joaquín and Julián were architects; Miguel and José María, engineers. Between them they worked on much of the modern city, from the Gran Vía to the Plaza de España. The engineering of the underground falls above all to Miguel. He was the main driving force behind the metropolitan railway, and Line 1 of the Madrid metro opened in 1919 under his direction. The link with the neighbourhood is direct: the family launched the Compañía Urbanizadora Metropolitana, which bought land north of Cuatro Caminos and laid out the district’s plan around 1919, where open ground had stretched before. The family also signed the Palacio de Cibeles, now the city hall, and the Edificio España. From skyscraper to subsoil, their work is still walked over without hardly anyone knowing the name.