Walls of Philip IV

Plan of 1762. The Walls of the time of Philip IV remained intact until mid-19th century.

Plan of the Walls of Philip IV, with gates and portillos, published in 1847 in the Semanario Pintoresco Español.

The Walls of Felipe IV (Spanish: Real Cerca de Felipe IV) surrounded the city of Madrid between 1625 and 1868. Philip IV ordered their construction to replace the earlier Walls of Philip II and the Walls del Arrabal, which had already been surpassed by the growth of population of Madrid. These were not defensive walls, but essentially served fiscal and surveillance purposes: control the access of goods to the city and ensure the collection of taxes, and watch who went in and out of Madrid. The materials used for construction were brick, mortar and compacted earth.

It was one of the five walls that surrounded the city of Madrid in different times.^[1]

Location

The walls' route began from the currents Cuesta de la Vega, via to Rondas of Segovia, Toledo, Valencia and Atocha, plaza del Emperador Carlos V, avenues of Ciudad de Barcelona and Menéndez Pelayo, Calle de Alcalá, plaza de la Independencia, streets of Serrano, Jorge Juan, plaza de Colón, Génova, Sagasta, Carranza, and turn left by San Bernardo ran by Santa Cruz de Marcenado, Serrano Jover, la Princesa, Ventura Rodríguez, Ferraz, Cuesta de San Vicente, Paseo de la Virgen del Puerto and up bordering the Campo del Moro, until link with Cuesta de la Vega.

History

As in 1590 the constructions exceeded the Walls of Philip II, because during the reign of Philip IV "the Great" population tripled with respect to that of his grandfather, it was necessary to expand the boundaries of Madrid. The idea of a new walls start in 1614 and it was commissioned the project to Juan Gómez de Mora, chief architect of the king and of the City Council. Gómez de Mora marked the boundaries of the new walls in a report in 1617 indicating that the various sections of the walls should be carried out by master architects.

In 1625, Philip IV ordered the construction of other new walls using brick, mortar and earth. This fiscal and surveillance walls served to control that all products and foodstuffs that entered to the city pay its corresponding taxes also as for monitor people coming to Madrid. For can rise it applied armhole in wine. It was built by separate sectors of the city, in each of which was placed a gate of certain importance. Gates and portillos took the names from nearby buildings. The route of the walls adapted to the configuration of terrain, which made it very irregular. In 1650 already covered the Mountain del Príncipe Pío, the Buen Retiro and the Hermitage of Atocha. Its biggest drawback was that prevented growth of the city stacking its population for over two hundred years.

Photograph by J. Laurent of the Gate of Toledo in 1865. Beside the gate are seen the Walls that still surrounded Madrid at that time.

The new walls were about thirteen kilometers long^[2] and enclosed an area of 500 hectares, of which more than 150 belonged to the Buen Retiro Royal Site. This area includes all the present-day Centro district plus Buen Retiro Park and the Los Jerónimos neighbourhood. The walls were partially rebuilt in the 18th century and were demolished in 1868 during the Glorious Revolution, as they were considered an Isabelline symbol.^[2]

The exits from Madrid were flanked by five royal gates, or gates of registration (where taxes were paid): Puerta de Segovia, Puerta de Toledo, Puerta de Atocha, Puerta de Alcalá and Puerta de Bilbao; and fourteen minor gates or portillos, opened at different dates: Portillo de la Vega, Portillo de las Vistillas, Portillo de Gilimón, Portillo de del Campillo del Mundo Nuevo, Portillo de Embajadores, Portillo de Valencia, Portillo de Campanilla, Portillo de Recoletos, Portillo de Santa Bárbara, Portillo de Maravillas, Portillo de Santo Domingo, Portillo de del Conde Duque, Portillo de San Bernardino and Portillo de San Vicente.

The main gates remained open until 10pm in winter and 11pm in summer. After this time, if necessary, passage was permitted through a checkpoint. The portillos were opened at dawn and closed at sunset, remaining closed overnight. Except for the Puerta de San Vicente – built by Sabatini – the portillos are not noted for their architecture.

Current status

State of one of the remains

Remnants of the walls are visible in two places. One forms part of the retaining wall of the Jardines de Las Vistillas, next to the access staircase, where was also found at the same time the Casa de Gil Imón. It is in a ruinous state and has suffered the collapse of some sections.^[2] The other is attached to the fire station of Ronda de Segovia by the Puerta de Toledo roundabout; it is no more than five meters in length, and carries a commemorative plaque. This section dates from the 18th-century reconstruction.^[2]

There is another fragment in the garden area of the Seminario Conciliar, which was demolished without permission by the archbishopric of Madrid. The Directorate General of Heritage of the Community of Madrid mandated the reconstruction of this section, but it was carried out using new materials without attention to the original materials.^[2] The interim plan for the Manzanares riverbank, approved by the city council of Madrid, will allow the archbishopric of Madrid to erect five buildings in the Cornisa park, threatening the existing remains of the Walls. These facts have led to the inclusion of the Cornisa park on the Hispania Nostra association's "Red List" of endangered heritage sites.^[3]

A new section was found in 2009 during work on the Calle de Serrano.^[4][5]

See also

• Walls of Madrid

Bibliography

• María Isabel Gea (2002). "Walls of Philip IV". Diccionario Enciclopédico de Madrid. Madrid: La Librería. Retrieved July 5, 2013. 

References