Puerta de Alcala

The Puerta de Alcala stands on Plaza de la Independencia at the western edge of the Retiro Park and is one of the key examples of Spanish Neoclassicism. King Charles III commissioned Francesco Sabatini to build a new gate to replace the modest sixteenth-century Renaissance gate; the work was completed in 1778, with the date 1769 inscribed to mark its start. Sabatini delivered two not-quite-symmetrical facades: five arches with four half-columns on the outward side, and softer-clad cherubs with trophies of war by Roberto Michel on the city-facing front. The granite still bears bullet marks from the Spanish Civil War. Ana Belen's 1986 hit "Puerta de Alcala" celebrates it, and it has been protected as Bien de Interes Cultural since 1976. The gate is illuminated late into the night, with traffic flowing around it in a roundabout.