Many of Valencia's streets carry a person's name: painters, writers, kings, doctors and saints. A street sign gives the name, and sometimes a job such as Pintor or Doctor, but nothing else.
Each guide here starts from one name in the Ajuntament's street register. It tells you who the person was, why the city gave them a street where that is documented, which barrio the street is in, and where to find their work or trace today.
Who Valencia's streets are named after
Why some Valencia streets changed name in 2017
On 26 May 2017 the Ajuntament's Junta de Gobierno Local approved a set of street-name changes, published in the DOGV, the Generalitat's official journal, on 27 June 2017. The Ajuntament's campaign page counts 51 streets, while the list it publishes has 52 pairs of old and new names: one of them is the street that already bore the name Amado Granell Mesado, which became Manuela Solís Claràs. The files had been opened in 2016, and most of the names came from a report by the Universitat de València's Aula d'Història i Memòria Democràtica.
The legal basis was article 15 of Spain's Historical Memory Law, Ley 52/2007, which asked public administrations to remove names and mentions exalting the 1936 military uprising, the Civil War or the repression of the dictatorship. Two examples: Avenida del Baró de Càrcer became Avinguda de l'Oest, and Avenida General Urrutia became Avinguda Amado Granell Mesado.
Four names were kept with a new stated meaning: Plaza de América, Calle de Belchite, Plaza de Galicia and Avenida de Portugal. Both names stayed on the street signs for the first twelve months. Ley 52/2007 has since been repealed by Ley 20/2022 de Memoria Democrática.
One of the changes was later reversed. The municipal minutes of the ordinary session of 25 February 2022 record that a private individual challenged the renaming of Plaza Profesor López-Ibor as Plaza Grup Parpalló and won: València's Juzgado de lo Contencioso-Administrativo nº 3 ruled in the claimant's favour (judgment 135/2019 of 17 April 2019), and the TSJ of the Comunitat Valenciana dismissed the city's appeal (judgment 387 of 1 September 2021, clarified by an order of 30 December 2021). The Junta de Gobierno Local then ordered the name Plaza Profesor López-Ibor restored. We have read the minutes, not the court judgments themselves.
How each street-name biography is checked
Every street is checked against the Ajuntament's own street register, and every date against a museum, an archive or another primary source. Where the reason for a name is not documented, the guide says so rather than guessing.
New biographies are added one at a time, and each one appears on this page on the day it is published.
About the author
Michael Bastin
Founder, ValenciaMove - Valencia since 2016
Michael has lived in Valencia since 2016 and helps people move here.
Buy Michael a coffeeNeed help with your move?
Contact us. We handle visa, admin, and housing so you can focus on the exciting part.