Puerta de Toledo

The Puerta de Toledo is the most distinctive landmark in Ciudad Real, a horseshoe-arched gate set in a square brick tower in the Mudéjar manner, with two octagonal turrets flanking the entrance. It once stood guard over the road north toward Toledo and Madrid; today it stands island-like in the middle of a paved plaza with traffic flowing around it.

Walk up close and the alternating bands of brick and stone show clearly. The gate is best seen at dusk when the warm lights pick out the surfaces.

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A story
Built around 1328 under Alfonso XI, the Puerta de Toledo is the only one of the eight original gates of the medieval city wall that still stands. Pope John XXIII granted it the rare honour of being declared a national monument in 1915 — a piece of paperwork that almost certainly saved it from being demolished for traffic improvements a few decades later.