Puerta de Elvira
City gate · Granada
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Puerta de Elvira was the main gate into Nasrid Granada, built by the Zirid sultans in the 11th century on the site of one of the city's oldest gates and rebuilt into a full fortress by Yusuf I in the 14th. The surviving Nasrid arch is flanked by two rammed-earth towers crowned with battlements. Federico García Lorca named it in his poem "Gacela del mercado matutino."
Silk merchants entering the city were required to pass through this gate on their way to the Alcaicería, the Nasrid silk market, so its garrison doubled as a customs post as well as a defensive line. The surviving arch is built as a pointed horseshoe form from sandstone flagstone voussoirs. Outside the gate once spread the Ibn Malik cemetery, one of the city's largest Muslim burial grounds; part of it now lies beneath the Renaissance-era Royal Hospital. Only the outer arch, one lateral buttress and a stretch of the original walled approach on Calle Elvira and Calle Horno de Merced survive of Yusuf I's fortress. The gate today faces the Plaza del Triunfo, where the old city opens toward Granada's newer districts.
What you see
The arch stands alone as an isolated monument between traffic lanes, facing the gardens and long fountain of the Plaza del Triunfo.
city gatenasrid architectureliterary landmark