Calle del General Castaños

On Texeira’s 1656 map this street barely exists: a dead-end alley called las Ánimas. The Brotherhood of San Sebastián set out tables here with a carved wooden soul figure to raise funds against the plague. The alley grew along with the grounds of the Salesas Reales convent until it joined plaza de las Salesas with calle de Génova, in the Justicia quarter, amid robes and court files. The present name honours a Madrid soldier with a novelist’s life. Francisco Javier Castaños was an infantry captain at ten and a lieutenant general at forty-four. His hour came in 1808: the Supreme Junta of Seville gave him the Army of Andalusia and, on 19 July, his forces beat Dupont at Bailén. More than 17,600 French soldiers surrendered and Joseph I fled Madrid; the news crossed Europe as the first crack in the myth of an unbeatable Napoleon. Curiously, Castaños never set foot on the battlefield: he ran the strategy from the rear. For that day he received the dukedom of Bailén.

When Castaños died on 24 September 1852, the newspaper La Época reported that the liquid assets of the first captain general of Spain did not amount to forty-seven duros. His will confirmed the situation: “I die poor, but even were I rich, I would prefer not to spend on sumptuous catafalques and grand music, but on prayers and alms for needy families.” La Gaceta de Madrid explained the paradox by noting that he had distributed his captain general’s salary among more than a hundred families without means. Isabel II ignored his wish to be buried in an anonymous grave in the cemetery of San Nicolás and ordered a state funeral with interment in the Pantheon of Illustrious Men; his remains were moved to Bailén in 1963.