Puerta del Sol Audio Guide

Puerta del Sol: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Puerta del Sol

   Welcome to Puerta del Sol, the grand central square of Madrid and one of the city's most famous places. You are standing in the heart of Hapsburg Madrid, the oldest part of the city, and right in the middle of everything. Look around and you will notice the square's semi-circular shape. It works as a junction for some of the oldest and busiest streets in town: Calle Mayor, Calle del Arenal, Calle de Alcalá and Calle de Preciados. Here is the part that makes this spot so special. It is the starting point for all the major radial roads in Spain. Think of it as the hub of a great wheel, with the roads of the whole country running out from this one place like spokes. Over the next few minutes we will go back to when this was a gate, find out how a narrow passage became a square, and look for the details hiding in plain sight. Then we will see why people come here to celebrate, to protest and simply to meet. Take a slow breath, let the bustle wash around you, and let's begin.

2. 02

   Before It Was a Square, It Was a Gate

   The name tells you the story if you listen closely. Puerta means gate, and Sol means sun. This square was originally the site of one of the city's gates. Madrid, in the Middle Ages, was a small walled town, and this gate was one of its ways in. The name is reputed to come from a gate that stood here until 1510, with a representation of the sun on its front. It may be hard to picture now, but the old accounts describe something modest. Some chroniclers say the gate was barely wider than two carts. Historians of Madrid, such as López de Hoyos, described this spot in medieval times as a transit, a road and an entrance into the city. In the documents of the age, another gate, the Puerta de Guadalajara on what is now Calle Mayor, seems to get more attention than the humble, wide street that would become Sol. So the busiest square in Madrid started as a threshold, a place you passed through on your way somewhere else. That is a nice thought to carry with you while you watch the crowds crossing it today.

3. 03

   From Crossing Point to Square

   For a long time Puerta del Sol was less a square than a widened, oblong passageway where many streets met. It took on the look of a square only in the middle of the nineteenth century. Until then it was an obligatory crossing point for any Madrilenian wanting to cross the center of the city. That created a need to widen it and to give it a more homogeneous, monumental appearance, and the great mid-century renovation answered that need. The area's administrative life reflects its importance too. When Madrid was divided into districts on November the seventeenth, 1840, a neighborhood called the barrio de la Puerta del Sol was created. It kept that name until October the thirty-first, 1968. Then there is a night that lit up the city. On October the tenth, 1830, to celebrate the birth of Princess Isabella, gas lighting was used for the first time in Spain across the whole of Puerta del Sol and its adjacent streets. The gas came from a factory near the Puerta de Toledo. The facade of the Buen Suceso building showed almost 50,000 lights. Imagine the glow, and the crowds looking up. Around that time the street markets that had been so typical of the early century moved to the newly created Plaza del Carmen.

4. 04

   Kilometre Zero, the Bear and the Old Post Office

   Now let's find some landmarks. In front of the main entrance to the Casa de Correos, the old post office building, a stone slab on the pavement marks Spain's Kilometre Zero. It is the starting point for all the major radial roads in the country. You will probably see people standing on it for photos, and now you know what it means. The Casa de Correos is also the only survivor among the important old buildings of the square. Urban changes over the centuries gradually erased many of the others. It later served as the seat of the Ministry of Gobernación, and today it is the seat of the Community of Madrid. It is the oldest building on the present-day square. For a second landmark, look across the square to where Calle de Alcalá begins, the longest street in Madrid. There you will find the famous Oso y Madroño, the bear and the strawberry tree. This statue is one of the symbols deeply rooted in Madrid's identity, and the whole story of the city seems to meet in this one spot.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Puerta del Sol has always been a meeting place, which is why the Madrilenians once called it a forum. The poet Antonio Machado called it the plaza and forum of Spain. The nineteenth-century writer Ángel Fernández de los Ríos said there is not an inch of land here that is not watered with the blood of patriots, factious people or revolutionaries. Strong words, and they give you a sense of how much history has crossed this ground. Republics have been proclaimed here, sporting victories celebrated, and social movements such as the one known as fifteen M have gathered thousands of citizens asking for change. The square is also a gathering point for New Year celebrations. Writers have fallen for it too, including Ramón Gómez de la Serna and the generation of 98, who described its social atmosphere in their Madrid writing. Before you move on, take one more slow look. Which of the streets leading away from the square will you follow? Each one carries you into another layer of the city. You might head down Calle Mayor, toward where the old Puerta de Guadalajara once stood, or along Calle de Alcalá, or into the lively shopping streets nearby. Madrid is waiting in every direction.