Puerta de Alcalá: Two Faces of a Gate
Why is it significant?
Stand on the Retiro side of the roundabout and take in the whole gate: three tall arches and two square doorways, granite, stone garlands, little angels lounging on the top. Now walk around and compare the other side. Something is off... they do not match.
Key Facts
| Place | Puerta de Alcalá: Two Faces of a Gate |
|---|---|
| Address | Plaza de la Independencia, 28001 Madrid, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 40.42000, -3.68870 |
| Part of Walk | Madrid's Landscape of Light: The Paseo del Arte, the Prado & the Retiro |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand on the Retiro side of the roundabout and take in the whole gate: three tall arches and two square doorways, granite, stone garlands, little angels lounging on the top. Now walk around and compare the other side. Something is off... they do not match.
The Puerta de Alcalá was finished in 1778 for Charles the Third, designed by his favourite architect, the Sicilian-born Francesco Sabatini. It replaced an older, humbler gate on the road from Alcalá de Henares and Aragon, and it was meant as a triumphal entrance for the king who had transformed Madrid. It is often described as the first triumphal arch of its kind built in Europe since the fall of Rome, which is the sort of claim that guides love and historians argue about.
And why two different faces? The story goes that Sabatini presented the king with two designs, and Charles, unable to choose, simply approved both, one for each side. Look closely at the columns and the carvings, and you will find the differences yourself, a little game of spot the difference in granite.
For a long time this was the edge of Madrid. Beyond it were fields, convents and the royal park, and the city wall ran along here until the late nineteenth century, when it was pulled down and the grid of the Salamanca district spread east. In 1986 a song by Ana Belén and Víctor Manuel turned the gate into a pop anthem, the old stones watching time go by, and every Madrileño over forty can still sing the chorus.
Now cross towards the iron railings and enter the park through the gate on the Plaza de la Independencia. Follow the wide avenue straight ahead under the trees. After a few minutes it opens onto a lake, with rowing boats, and a king on horseback watching over it from a colonnade.