... It was called "Puerta de Alcalá" (Alcalá´s Gate), due to it had been built in the road that finished in Alcalá de Henares, nowadays declared World Heritage City by UNESCO.
As Carlos the Third, also known as "the best Major of Madrid" did not like the design, he ordered to demolish the gate, ... Read review
The Hotel Durval Puerta de Alcala occupies a magnificent 19th Century building that has ... more
been recently restored and equipped with the latest technology but without losing its original charmIts atmosphere of quality tranquility and service together with a style that mixes the traditional with the contemporary gives the hotel its own personality perfect for either business or leisureThe hotel Durval Puerta de Alcala is situated between the Puerta de Alcala the famous Parque del Retiro the plaza Cibeles and a few metres from the Paseo de RecoletosIt is right at the heart of culrural Madrid in the "Triangulo del Arte": the Museo del Prado Centro de Arte Reina Sofia and the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza and near to the main art galleries and exclusive boutiques of Madrid that are found in the Jorge Juan Claudio Coello Serrano Ortega and Gasset StreetsOpen on FEBRUARY 2008!!!
Information: :Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Location. The Durval Puerta de Alcalá is located in Madrid, Spain, 500 metres from the ... more
Prado Museum in the Triangulo de Arte, the cultural centre of the city. Retiro metro station, which backs onto Retiro Park, is 100 metres away, and Madrid Barajas Airport is 15 kilometres distance. Hotel Features. The hotel occupies a 19th century building, refurbished to include a gym, a health spa, wireless Internet access, and air conditioning, while maintaining a traditional feel with a fireplace in the lobby. Room service is 24 hours, and the multilingual staff can arrange show tickets, day trips and restaurant bookings. Garage parking is available for a surcharge. The El Zaguan restaurant at the Durval Puerta de Alcalá serves seasonal food in a modern setting. The bar, where fine liquors and snacks are available, is set around the fireplace in the library. There is a business centre with 24 hour service and complimentary Internet. The hotel offers fitness equipment and spa and beauty treatments in itsgym and health spa. A variety of golf courses are nearby, including the Real Club Puerta de Hierro, seven kilometres away and the National Golf Centre, 10 kilometres distance. Casa de Campo, Madrid's largest park, has rowing boats for hire on its lake, and swimming and tennis are also available. Guestrooms. Various colour schemes create diverse atmospheres in the 70 guestrooms. All are equipped with air conditioning, minibars, safes, hair dryers, LCD flatscreen television, and complimentary wireless Internet.Expert Tip. The hotel lies within Madrid's golden triangle of three great art galleries, El Prado, Thyssen Bornemisza, and Reina Sofia. Between them they hold Picasso's Guernica, masterpieces by Goya and El Greco, and The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch.
Information: :Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Location. The Durval Puerta de Alcalá is located in Madrid, Spain, 500 metres from the ... more
Prado Museum in the Triangulo de Arte, the cultural centre of the city. Retiro metro station, which backs onto Retiro Park, is 100 metres away, and Madrid Barajas Airport is 15 kilometres distance. Hotel Features. The hotel occupies a 19th century building, refurbished to include a gym, a health spa, wireless Internet access, and air conditioning, while maintaining a traditional feel with a fireplace in the lobby. Room service is 24 hours, and the multilingual staff can arrange show tickets, day trips and restaurant bookings. Garage parking is available for a surcharge. The El Zaguan restaurant at the Durval Puerta de Alcalá serves seasonal food in a modern setting. The bar, where fine liquors and snacks are available, is set around the fireplace in the library. There is a business centre with 24 hour service and complimentary Internet. The hotel offers fitness equipment and spa and beauty treatments in itsgym and health spa. A variety of golf courses are nearby, including the Real Club Puerta de Hierro, seven kilometres away and the National Golf Centre, 10 kilometres distance. Casa de Campo, Madrid's largest park, has rowing boats for hire on its lake, and swimming and tennis are also available. Guestrooms. Various colour schemes create diverse atmospheres in the 70 guestrooms. All are equipped with air conditioning, minibars, safes, hair dryers, LCD flatscreen television, and complimentary wireless Internet. Expert Tip. The hotel lies within Madrid's golden triangle of three great art galleries, El Prado, Thyssen Bornemisza, and Reina Sofia. Between them they hold Picasso's Guernica, masterpieces by Goya and El Greco, and The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch.
Information: :Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
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I´m going to write about a wonderful Gate of Madrid. I hope you like it and of course I want to apologize for my level of English.
== The city ==
Madrid is the capital of Spain. It is in the centre of Spain, and although there are remains of a human settlements before the Roman Empire, Madrid become the capital of the country and of the Great Spanish Empire in 1561, when the king Philip the second moved all his family and employees ... ...up and new wonderful buildings have been made.
Nowadays is an important city for cultural and business tourism, and its weather is loved by everyone who visits it.
== History of the monument ==
In the sixteenth century, Madrid was a city rounded by a wall made with not very strong materials build to avoid the uncontrolled growth of the city and to have a control of the goods that were taken into the city. There were some ... more
I´m going to write about a wonderful Gate of Madrid. I hope you like it and of course I want to apologize for my level of English.
The city
Madrid is the capital of Spain. It is in the centre of Spain, and although there are remains of a human settlements before the Roman Empire, Madrid become the capital of the country and of the Great Spanish Empire in 1561, when the king Philip the second moved all his family and employees from Toledo to Spain. Since that moment, Madrid has grown up and new wonderful buildings have been made. Nowadays is an important city for cultural and business tourism, and its weather is loved by everyone who visits it.
History of the monument
In the sixteenth century, Madrid was a city rounded by a wall made with not very strong materials build to avoid the uncontrolled growth of the city and to have a control of the goods that were taken into the city. There were some gates at this wall. The king Philip the Third married to the Princess Margarita from Austria, thus he decided to build a monumental gate to commemorate the marriage. It was called "Puerta de Alcalá" (Alcalá´s Gate), due to it had been built in the road that finished in Alcalá de Henares, nowadays declared World Heritage City by UNESCO. As Carlos the Third, also known as "the best Major of Madrid" did not like the design, he ordered to demolish the gate, and another gate, bigger and nicer was built following the planes of Francesco Sabatini, the favourite architect of the King. This gate that has become a symbol of Madrid was finished in 1778. This gate joins culture and history. May be when you are in front of the gate you think "oh, these Spanish people are a very careless, some stones have little holes and they do not fix it…". If you ever think that, you will be making a mistake. These holes were made in 1808, during the Spanish Independence War against French troops. They are part of the history. The French Army destroyed lots of monuments and palaces from Madrid, like "Buen Retiro" Palace, but this gate survived. == How to get to Alcalá´s Gate == This gate is the main element of the Independence Square (Plaza de la Independencia in Spanish), that is located in the junction of Alcalá, Alfonso XII and Serrano streets. You can arrive there… - By car: this is not recommended. Parking there is very difficult, and you will have to pay if you want to park there until 8 p.m. Alcalá and Alfonso XII are bidirectional streets, and Serrano Street has only one direction, finishing in that square. I don not recommend you to go there by car. - By metro: the suburban of Madrid has two stations next to the gate: Retiro and Banco de España, in the line 2 (the red one). - By bus: this is a very easy mean of transport to get there, because this monument is in the centre of the city and lot of busses pass very closed to it. - By train: you can arrive easily from Atocha Station, where they stop all the train lines of Madrid. You can also arrive from Recoletos Station. From both of them to the square you will have to walk les than ten minutes.
The Square
It is next to Retiro Park, in the centre of the city. From the square you can easily see Cibeles Fountain and the start of Gran Via, one of the main streets of Madrid.
The Gate
The gate id located in the centre of the square, rounded by some floral decorations. Its materials are graphite and marble. Its architect, Francesco Sabatini, also designed some parts of Royal Palace and San Francisco el Grande, a wonderful church of Madrid. It is composed by five arcs. Two of them are rectangular and the three central arcs are finished in a circular form. These three arcs were used by carriages and the two rectangular arcs were used by people walking. The two façades of the gate are different: the East one is made by semi-columns while the West one is formed by piles ***. This gate has some sculptural groups. In the upper part of the central arc we can read "REGE CAROLO III. ANNO MDCCLXXVIII". King Charles the Third. Year 1778. This is very easy to visit. In few minutes you will have enjoyed the gate. If you ever go to Spain, do not doubt about watching that wonderful monument.
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I´m really sorry for my level of English, but I hope that you have understood most of the words that I have used. The words with *** I do not know if they are well used. If anyone could help me… I will put some photos of that monument when I reach the green level.
Advantages: Meet madrid! Disadvantages: Very expensive zone...
...about this fantastic place... La puerta de Alcalá...
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- HISTORY *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
La puerta de alcalá was builded for the King CARLOS III, (called the best Madrid's mayor) and designed for Sabatini at the year 1778.
The first Puerta de Alcalá was really used as door, but the actually monument is the builded by Carlos III, and is only a conmemorative monument.
The style of this monument is neoclassic.
It has three archs and two ... ...MY OPINION *-*-*-*-*-*-*
La puerta de alcalá is one of the most important monuments of Madrid, but the zone is not the best, because it's too expensive and too turistic... But if you go to see this monument, please stop at retiro's garden, because it's really relaxed and a lake of place in the chaos of city...
Thanks for read me!
Bye and blesses of the night...
P.s.: Sorry about my mistakes but i'm spanish... and i'm practising my english. Too ...
Dark_soul 28.09.2004
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Madrid. Not far away the visitor can see the Puerta Del Sol, roads radiating from Madrid to the provinces. Such landmarks belong to the oldest part of the city.
As Madrid expanded, kings of the Bourbon dynasty - notably Charles III - built or promoted other monuments' often following the architectural styles of the Bourbons native France. Some examples are the Royal Palace, the National Library, the Municipal Museum, the Fountain of Cybele, the fountain of Neptune and the PuertadeAlcala.
***The Avenue of Art***
*************************
Thanks to the generosity of the Spanish royalty, Madrid also houses one of the most important art galleries in the world. The Prado Museum was erected on the orders of Charles III, known to history as a notable mayor of Madrid. The art collection is essentially that of the Spanish monarchs, who began ...
Advantages: For me, that is located in Madrid Disadvantages: For you, that is located in Madrid
?El Retiro? or ?El Buen Retiro? is to Madrid, like Hyde Park is to London and Central Park to New York. It is a big park in the heart of the town.
It was built during the kingdom of Felipe IVth, but it was in the time of Carlos the IIIrd when people was allowed to visit but in a very restricted way. With the First Republic the park was property of the town, for enjoyment of all its inhabitants.
You can reach it by metro ?Retiro? or by buses, with numbers 1, 2, 202, 9, 15, 20, 28 and it is surrounded bay Alcala, O?Donnell, Alfonso XII streets. The main entrance is in Plaza de la Independencia just in front of the ?PuertadeAlcalá? and five minute walking you reach the pool with the monument erected in memorial of Alfonso XII.
You can rent a boat, or visit the ?Crystal Palace? that remember a special cage of birds but now is ...
Advantages: If you do not visit the Puerta you do not know Madrid Disadvantages: Lot of people, thieves...
A ?puerta? in Spanish means a ?door?, but ?La Puerta el Sol? is not a door, is not an arc, is not an special and commemorative monument.. . is a ?Square?, the most known square in the country and there, you can find the kilometre cero, that means that it is just the middle point of Spain. May be the name is due because hundred of years ago, more o less by 1570 there were a castle or a door that was demolished because the town was growing.
Now is the heart of Madrid, all becomes their, manifestations, fairs, meetings, and is a tradition to eat the grapes of ?Nochevieja? the 31st of December, following the rhythm of the Puerta del Sol? clock.
The calle deAlcalá (the most know street in Madrid) is born their, and very close just five minutes walking you can find ?La plaza Mayor? and the old Madrid ?El Madrid de los Austrias?. So ...
ladamaboba 20.02.2004 (17.02.2005)
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