Calle de Gandía

The sign travels to the Valencian coast. Gandía is the capital of the Safor region, on the shore of the Mediterranean, a city that for centuries revolved around its ducal palace and the families who inhabited it. Gandía’s fame came with the Borjas: in 1485 Ferdinand and Isabella granted the title of duke to a son of Cardinal Rodrigo de Borja, the future pope Alexander VI. From that lineage came Francis of Borja, the fourth duke, who fortified the town against Barbary pirates and built there the first university of the Society of Jesus. On being widowed, he left the duchy to become a Jesuit; in time he rose to general of the Society and, later, to sainthood. In the Adelfas neighborhood, calle de Gandía is a short, quiet residential street that ends at the avenida de la Paz, one among the names of Spanish towns scattered across the area.