The history of the Puerta del Sol represents an essential part of the memory of the Villa de Madrid (capital of Spain), not only because the Puerta del Sol is a point of frequent passage, but also because it constitutes the "center of gravity" of Madrid's urban planning. The square has been acquiring its character as a place of historical importance from its uncertain beginnings as a wide and impersonal street in the sixteenth century, to the descriptions of the first romantic travelers, the receptions of kings, popular rebellions, demonstrations, etc. It has been the scene of major events in the life of the city, from the struggle against the French invaders in 1808 to the proclamation of the Second Republic in 1931, and it has also retained its place as the protagonist of the custom of serving twelve grapes on New Year's Eve, to the sound of the chimes struck by the Correos clock. Nowadays it is a communications hub, a meeting point, a place of appointments, a place for celebrations and the beginning of demonstrations in the Capital.
During this intense historical evolution, the Puerta del Sol has been gathering the popularity of Madrid in its various periods. Since its beginnings, its position in the urban geography of Madrid has given it a leading role as a social meeting place, sometimes referred to as forum matritense. It has also been defined as "Plaza y foro" of Spain by Antonio Machado, and Ángel Fernández de los Ríos mentioned that "There is not an inch of land there that is not watered with the blood of patriots, factious or revolutionaries."
From the architectural point of view, the Puerta del Sol is a widened, oblong-shaped passageway, a point of convergence of streets that took on the appearance of a square in the mid-nineteenth century. In this space, a dozen streets converge, which in the eighteenth century were only eleven. The Puerta del Sol has undergone various urban improvement works throughout its history, the most important being the one undertaken in the mid-nineteenth century. In many cases, the urban development carried out throughout its history has gradually erased important buildings of the past. Of all of them, the only survivor is the old Casa de Correos, which was later the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior and is now the headquarters of the Community of Madrid. It is the oldest building in the Puerta del Sol today. The second oldest is the Casa Cordero, which throughout the history of the square has been changing its use.
The Puerta del Sol has excited several writers since the beginning of its history, and many of them have included this space in their literary works. Ramón Gómez de la Serna and the Generation of '98, in their works about Madrid, have described the social atmosphere of this center. In them they describe the existing animation of its daytime activities. From Lope de Vega to Ramón Gómez de la Serna the literary descriptions are frequent, perhaps because of the literary gatherings of the nineteenth century in its famous cafés.
Origins
Historians specializing in the origins of Madrid show that the first settlers of the Madrid area were the pre-Roman tribes of the Carpetani. Their settlements were established in the area near the current Royal Palace. Little is known about the Roman settlements that invaded Hispania and settled in Madrid, and the customs and ways of inhabiting the ancient settlements that proliferated in the surrounding area are unknown. The first news of the primitive settlement, which was called Magerit, dates from the time of the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, when they established themselves in the area by building a walled fortification that surrounded and defended the town from possible attacks. Subsequent attempts by Ramiro II of León and Fernán González, Count of Castile to take the fortified square were momentarily successful in the year 932. During the years of the Reconquista, the center of the Muslim Magerit was the Plaza del Alcázar, which was located in the middle of olive groves, and probably on the site of the building known as the Alcázar, which burned down in 1734 and on whose site the present Royal Palace was built. Finally, the square was taken by the Christians during the reign of Alfonso VI in 1085.
More than a century later, in the twelfth century, the growth of the hamlet made it necessary to build a wall fence that had the Puerta de Guadalajara (on the road to Guadalajara) located approximately at the current San Miguel Market. Another gate from medieval times, relatively close, belonging to the same fence as the Puerta de Guadalajara, was the Puerta Cerrada (now converted into a square).