The church of San Francisco de Borja, located at number 104 Serrano Street in Madrid, will be this Saturday the first setting for the wedding that will unite José Luis Martínez-Almeida, 48, and Teresa Urquijo Moreno, 27 The so-called marriage of the year will bring together in the Spanish capital the leadership of the Popular Party and members of the Borbón family, since the bride’s maternal grandmother, Teresa de Borbón-Dos Sicilias, is the first cousin of King Jan Carlos.
The temple chosen by the couple is a neo-baroque building built between 1946 and 1950, but its most curious confluence with history occurred in 1973, since that Madrid church was the last one that Luis Carrero Blanco set foot in before getting into the black Dodge 3700 GT that It flew into the air minutes later as it passed through Claudio Coello Street, the back street of the church.
It was the temple where Carrero Blanco, then president of the Government, used to hear mass every morning. Upon leaving the temple on December 20, 1973, he got into his official car and suffered the attack perpetrated by ETA that ended his life, which is considered the largest attack against the Franco dictatorship since the end of the Spanish civil war. in 1939.
The explosion left a large hole in the asphalt and the explosion caused the remains of the official car to rise vertically, almost parallel to the rear façade of the church grounds. The vehicle was suspended on the roof of the fifth floor of the building that still surrounds the cloister adjacent to the church, where the charred remains of the explosion ended up falling.
After the religious ceremony, the banquet will be held at the fine El Canto de la Cruz, located in Colmenar Viejo and owned by Iñigo Moreno de Arteaga, maternal grandfather of the bride. Some members of the Borbón family will not be missing from the wedding, from Kings Juan Carlos and Sofia to the Infantas Elena and Cristina. Kings Felipe and Letizia are also invited, but their attendance has not been confirmed.
