Puerta de Bisagra
The name Puerta de Bisagra (from Arabic Bab al-Saqra ; German about 'gate of the field') is borne by two neighboring city gates in the former Spanish capital of Toledo . The name suggests that the area to the north of the city wall was not built on, but was dominated by fields. Both gates belong to the old town area of Toledo, which is recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site .
location
Both city gates or gate complexes are only a few meters apart in the northern part of the old town of Toledo, which was formerly surrounded by a city wall, in the immediate vicinity of the Mudéjar Church of Santiago del Arrabal .
Puerta Vieja de Bisagra
The old city gate is a building from the time of Islamic rule over the city, made of blocks of house blocks in the lower part and broken stones and bricks in the upper part . While the lower part with its massive stone lintel beam looks rather defensive and massive, the upper part is almost elegant and representative with set columns, brick-built horseshoe arches that can be both round and pointed, and the constant change between the stone materials. One can assume that the upper part with the windowed guard room and a crenellated platform does not correspond to the original state, but several decades after the city was taken by King Alfonso VI. von León in 1085, which - which seems unbelievable - is said to have ridden through this gate in Toledo in triumph, was decoratively redesigned in the then fashionable Mudéjar style.
Puerta Nueva de Bisagra
In the middle of the 16th century, the city council decided on a representative new construction of the city gate, which should also be suitable for carriages, riders and carriages. The Renaissance architect Alonso de Covarrubias , who is said to have completed the complex in 1559/60, was commissioned to build it. The double-gate complex of Puerta de Bisagra nueva with a walled inner courtyard about 12 meters wide and 25 meters long, in which goods could be checked and reloaded, soon lost its importance, because in 1561 the Spanish monarch Philip II relocated the Capital of the country in Madrid, about 80 kilometers northeast .
Outer gate
The outer gate with its two lateral round towers made of rubble stones resembles a castle gate, the middle and upper parts of which, however, are made of precisely hewn stone material. The large stone coat of arms of Spain with the crowned double eagle of the House of Habsburg , the two lateral columns of Hercules , the coat of arms with two castles ( castillo = 'Castile') and two lions ( león = 'León') in the four central fields and one is imposing small pomegranate ( granada ) in the lower gusset and the surrounding chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece with attached ram's skin.
Inner gate
The general view of the city-side gate with its two towering side towers with pyramid-shaped roofs almost resembles that of a church. On the side of the city, made of precisely hewn stones, there is another stone coat of arms with the Spanish royal coat of arms - framed by two windows with triangular gables . In contrast, the walls on the courtyard side with the two towers on the side consist of a mixture of broken stone and bricks, as found in many buildings in Toledo from the 13th to the 15th and 16th. Century were common.
literature
- All of Toledo . Editorial Escudo de Oro, Barcelona 1988, ISBN 84-378-0479-5 , p. 15.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 39 ° 51 '44.9 " N , 4 ° 1' 30.8" W.