Calle Puerto Serrano

Calle de Puerto Serrano, in Legazpi, bears the name of the Cádiz town, perched on the northwestern edge of the Sierra de Cádiz, beside the Guadalete. It belongs to a group of neighborhood streets named after Andalusian towns. The town’s name comes from a person. In 1615 the residents of a small hamlet dependent on Morón asked the Crown to separate from the municipality; the man who gathered those settlers was Ginés Serrano de Molina, whose surname gave the “Serrano.” Full independence did not arrive until 1835, after a long dispute with Morón. The place carries ancient history. Under Arab rule it was called Gáilir and held a castle that guarded the river crossing; Ferdinand III conquered it around 1240, and for centuries it was frontier land with the Nasrid kingdom of Granada. Today Puerto Serrano marks the start of the Vía Verde de la Sierra greenway. The Madrid street, by contrast, descends quietly toward one of the entrances to Enrique Tierno Galván park.