Puerta del Sol

The name comes from a door, decorated with a sun, in the medieval walls of Madrid and pulled down in the seventeenth century. Initially, it was outside the town but urban expansion gradually left it at the very centre of the capital.1

In 1857, the Ministry of Public Works awarded a contract for renovation to Lucio del Valle, Juan Rivera and José Morer, who retained the alignment of the former Casa de Correos (Post Office) on one side of the square, while giving a semi-circular shape to the other.1

Since 1950, the Puerta del Sol has been the location of what is known as “Kilometre Zero”, the starting-point of all Spanish main roads. The oldest building in the Puerta del Sol is the Casa de Correos, with the famous clock tower built in the 19th century by José Rodríguez de Losada. Beneath it, at midnight on 31 December every year, crowds gather to celebrate the New Year by eating one grape, to a total of twelve, with every chime of the clock.2

1 Esmadrid.es
2 Wikipedia