Puerta del Sol

You are in the Puerta del Sol, but you will not see any gate here. The name recalls an entrance in the wall that surrounded Madrid at the end of the Middle Ages; according to the most widespread explanation, it was decorated with a sun because it faced east.

1From gate to square

Once the wall was pulled down, the spot became a crossroads and a meeting point: news, rumours and stagecoaches all arrived here. The oldest building on the square is the Real Casa de Correos, built between 1766 and 1768 by the French architect Jaime Marquet. It later became the Ministry of the Interior and, under Franco, the headquarters of the security police (Dirección General de Seguridad). Today it houses the Office of the President of the Community of Madrid.

The semicircular shape and uniform façades you see date from the major redevelopment carried out between 1857 and 1862.

2A stage for history

The Puerta del Sol witnessed episodes of the uprising of 2 May 1808 against the French troops, commemorated by a plaque on the façade of the Casa de Correos. And on 14 April 1931, from the balcony of the Ministry of the Interior, the Second Republic was proclaimed before a crowd.

Since 1950 the square has been home to kilometre zero of Spain’s radial roads.

3What to look out for

• The Real Casa de Correos and its clock tower.
• The 2 May plaque, on the façade.
• The curve of the square, the result of the 19th-century redevelopment.