Macarena Gate

Puerta de la Macarena was one of the gates of the Walls of Seville.

The Puerta de la Macarena (in Arabic: Bab-al-Makrin), also known as Arco de la Macarena, is along with the Postigo del Aceite and the Puerta de Córdoba the only three access that remain today of those who had the walls of Seville. It is located in the calle Resolana, within of barrio de San Gil, which belongs to the district of Casco Antiguo of the city of Seville (Andalusia). Facing it stands the Basílica de La Macarena, which houses the image of the Our Lady of La Esperanza Macarena, one of the most characteristic images of the Holy Week in Seville. and closely linked to the gate.

This is the entrance of the walls located further north of the city, and the higher of the set, and is one of the few remnants that remain from the walls of the city, along with the cloth of the walls that it connects with the Puerta de Córdoba through a wall in which are preserved seven towers. Although the enclosure walled of the city was built in time of Julius Caesar on the former Carthaginian defense, the gate corresponds to the extension made by the Sultan Ali ibn Yusuf in the 12th century, and its present appearance is the result of a remodeling carried out between the years 1723 and 1795, in which the Islamic architectural elements were replaced by the classicist air which presents today.

It was the gate used by the kings who visited for the first time the city, and to its walls it rose an altar in that performing their lawsuit tribute, and after which were handed the keys of the city to they, and so did Alfonso XI of Castile (1327), Isabella I of Castile (1477), Ferdinand II of Aragon (1508), Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his fiancee Isabella of Portugal (1526), and finally Philip IV (1624).

Crowns the set the ceramic altarpiece by painter Manuel Rodríguez representing the Our Lady of La Esperanza Macarena, inaugurated in 1923 by the infanta Maria de la Esperanza of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

The remains of the walled city, among which includes this gate, were declared Bien de Interés Cultural in the year 1985.

Location and toponym

The gate is located in what was the arrabal de la Macarena was the access of the walled enclosure which was further north of the city and from where started the old mule to Extremadura. Its cloth of wall joined to one side with Puerta de Carmona and to the other with the Puerta de Córdoba, being located in this last stretch the Torre Blanca. Today it is located in the calle Resolana, against the Basílica de La Macarena (built in [1941) and near the Hospital de las Cinco Llagas (home of Parliament of Andalusia), in the barrio de San Gil and District Casco Antiguo.

Regarding its name, there are several theories about the origin of the Macarena word, and the historians do not agree on when setting a concrete one. The farthest proposals attributed to the word a Greek origin, being attached to the name of Macaria, daughter of Hercules, founder of the city. There is also hypothesis of its Roman origin, specifically of a patrician called Macarius, which would have had great properties in the area, Finally, the closest option and most common among historians is to its Arab origin, through Moor princess who lived next to the wall, or of a Moor of the same name, as recounted in 1587 writer Alonso Morgado in his Historia de Sevilla:

that the Puerta de la Macarena took its name from main Moor called Macarena, because he was leaving he for this gate to his inheritance half legua from Seville, where even today remains a turret named Macarena of the name of this Moor, who built on that his membership. And for still the same reason it is also called today Collado de la Cabeça de Macarena, in the way of la Rinconada, town of that time a legua from Seville

(written in Medieval Spanish)

This Arab option seems to corroborate it the existence of qaryat Maqrana (the alqueria of Macarena), attached to the itinerary called Mamarr al-Sabila (the way of the travelers) which consisted of the self alqueria and a fortified tower, and was in the current Orchard de la Torrecilla, next to cemetery of San Fernando.

History

Cloth of wall in barrio La Macarena, one of the two canvases preserved from the walled enclosure throughout the city .

12th-15th centuries

The walls of Seville were built in times of Julius Caesar for replace the Carthaginian stockade that existed, and expanded during the rule of his son Augustus. Later in the 12th century the Arabs carried out a major expansion that doubled the walled enclosure under the rule of Sultan Ali ibn Yusuf. The Puerta de la Macarena corresponds to the Almoravid period of the city, so it had to be raised in this last extension of the set, although the historian Santiago Montoto de Sedas argues that this is, according to tradition, the only gate that remains of the built by Julius Caesar.

The legend has it that one night, during the siege of the city, the king Ferdinand III of Castile, being in the camp set up outside the city walls, prayed to the Virgin of the Kings to ask for help, and it called by his name and told him: "you have a protective constant in my image of la Antigua, to which you want much and is in Seville"and she promised the victory; then an angel made him enter the city until reach the main mosque, in within which he was shown the wall that hid, which turned transparent as glass, and the king could see the image of the Virgin of la Antigua as it had been painted centuries ago. The chroniclers place the entrance of the king by the Puerta de Jerez, and boast that when the Christians learned that the monarch was in the city came to his aid Diego Lopez de Haro 7th lord of Biscay and Rodrigo González Girón, whose camps were facing the Puerta de la Macarena, and with other six knights entered for her in the city; arrived at the main mosque, they had to confront the Muslims who discovered them, but they got out of the city and check that the king was already in the camp

Subsequently, within the inheritances that Alfonso X of Castile granted the two hundred knights, are include many close to the gate In 1358, entered through this gate the infante Don Fadrique, parent of the lineage of Enríquez, to die deceived in the city by order of his brother Peter of Castile, and in 1413 returned to his hometown fray Diego de Sevilla, who had been in the jerónimos de Guadalupe, and in following year carried out the foundation of monastery of San Jerónimo de Buenavista in an estate located outside the gate. Already during the reign of Henry IV of Castile had by the king, the gate Rodrigo de Ribera and farce of Avila caused it to be taken by the supporters of the infante Alfonso of Castile, although it was recovered by the henryquists soon after..

The July 24 of 1477 Queen Isabella I of Castile came to the city riding under a canopy of crimson brocade with dyed fringes, of greater magnitude and wealth than those used by her in her royal entries to date in other cities. Arrival at the Puerta de la Macarena at ten o'clock, on a silver altar swore to respect the privileges of the city and made her triumphal entrance to it through the gate. The arch was adorned with a cloth of brocade and crimson, and the event was attended by hundreds of people, not only the civil authorities of the city, but also the church, the aljama of Jews and Muslims and common people; King Ferdinand did not accompany his wife to be absent in Aragon. The Catholic Monarchs decided in 1491 that the cereal that came to the walled city from the outside, enter only through this gate and the Puerta de Triana and Puerta de Carmona, as picked up their rules "and that the bread thus draws out, entering the city of Seville through the puertas de Triana and de Carmona, and Macarena, and not through other gates".

16th-18th centuries

In the year 1508 would make his entry into the city through the gate Ferdinand II of Aragon, accompanied by Germaine of Foix, and for which were installed for the first time in Seville triumphal arches; in total were counted thirteen, that traveled in scenes the victories of the monarch His grandson the king Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor arrive on March 10 of 1526, made sworn in and made lawsuit tribute to the city at the gate, which came to it to celebrate his weddings with Isabella of Portugal. In the city seven triumphal arches were erected, to decorate the city for the lavish welcome, and the first of them stood behind this gate. It was dedicated to the caution, and over it appeared the emperor dressed in blue, a Latin inscription on the front and other in Castilian on the opposite, saying.' Honor that the Regiment and people of Seville makes to the Prudence, imperial virtue, first between all, because everyone made plain to the virtues that were with it, and showed in a short time fact what was once amazing ". The Empress entered the city the next day, the bond was held, and also made through this gate, and was accompanied under a canopy to the cathedral.

When the king Philip II will make his first and only visit to the city in 1570, without the agreement of all, it was decided that, although historically its predecessors made their triumphal entrance through this gate, is to do for the Puerta de Goles, for the inconvenience, overview and state of the adjacent streets around la Macarena, so that was the only time that a monarch made no his entry for it, and the de Goles since then it renamed Puerta Real his grandson Philip IV returned the tradition of his predecessors, and the March 1 of 1624, after spending the night in Carmona, he made his public entry into the city ​​through the gate, across the city to the Alcazar, being the only entry that made a Spanish monarch in the city throughout the 17th century The 5 July of the same year made his entrance into the city through this gate Luis Fernández de Córdoba Portocarrero, newly named Archbishop of Seville.