Puerta de la Macarena, Seville

Puerta de la Macarena is a surviving gateway in Seville’s old defensive walls, and its broad arch still gives this place a ceremonial presence. It belongs to a small group of just three gates that remain from those walls: the Postigo del Aceite, the Puerta de Córdoba, and this gate. The structure dates from the 12th century, when Sultan Ali ibn Yusuf ordered an enlargement of the city’s fortifications.

Its present appearance came through major rebuilding from 1723 to 1795, replacing earlier Islamic details with the classicist form you see now. Look at the ceramic altarpiece crowning the gateway: painter Manuel Rodríguez created it to show the Virgin of Hope of Macarena, and it was inaugurated in 1923. The basilica across the street is closely linked to that image and to the gate.

This entrance also carried royal ceremony. Kings traditionally entered Seville here, paid homage, and received the city’s keys; the visitors included Isabella of Castile in 1477 and Philip IV in 1624. The remaining walls, including this gateway, received protected cultural status in 1985.