Calle de Serrano

This guide to Calle de Serrano in Madrid traces the boulevard back to a scandalous royal romance: a teenage queen, Isabel II, and the dashing general Francisco Serrano she called her pretty general, an affair that shocked the court and briefly exiled him to a command in Granada. You'll hear how his career survived the scandal and carried him into the politics of the 1860s, while a banker named Jose de Salamanca was busy building this entire elegant grid of streets around him. Look up at the ironwork balconies built for the aristocrats who first lived here as you walk.