Portals of Vitoria-Gasteiz

The Portals or Arcs of Vitoria-Gasteiz were Medieval crenelated towers that fortified the entrances to a street of the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz (in Basque Country in Spain). This tower had a gateway in its center.

View of the Portals in the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca in 1833, Vitoria-Gasteiz.
View of the Portals in the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca by Spanish painter Juan Ángel Sáez in 1855.

A cholera epidemic was used as a pretext to demolish these buildings, between 1854 and 1856. With this demolition, the city lost one of the most characteristic elements of the medieval Vitoria-Gasteiz.

City layout

The eastern city walls had a single entry or access to the Portal del Rey's side, which closed with solid doors every night, as all streets of the city closed.[1]

Access to union neighborhoods was protected by these gateways and corresponding towers.

These towers belonged to civilian Vitorian families who inhabited them and gave their surnames to these buildings.

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See also

References
  1. "Portal del Rey: historia de sus nombres y de su origen", eitb, Basque Radio-television

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