Calle Príncipe de Asturias

The title of Prince of Asturias was signed in 1388 with the Treaty of Bayonne. By it, John I of Castile granted the dignity to his first-born son Henry, the future Henry III. When the peninsular crowns were unified, that title came to designate whoever would inherit the Spanish Crown. Since the 16th century Madrid had a Calle del Príncipe, in the Centro district, linked to Philip II’s oath. But the Calle del Príncipe de Asturias in the Goya neighbourhood was born much later: it appears neither in the 1860 Castro Plan nor in the chroniclers of the early 20th century. Who lies behind the name remains unclear. The most likely candidate is Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg, who bore the title from his birth in 1907 until he renounced it in 1933; the other is Juan Carlos de Borbón. No source settles the doubt: the plaque names a prince without saying which one.