Puerta de los Carros

City Gate in Granada

The Puerta de los Carros or Gate of the Cars in a city gate into the Alhambra Complex in Grenada, Spain. It has two doors, one larger and square, for cars and the other smaller, and with a wooden door for people.

What can you see at the Puerta de los Carros?

While it lacks decorative elements you can see a small coat of arms of the Catholic Monarchs, above the center of the vehicular entrance. It is carved in marble and has the inscription: Royal Fortress of the Alhambra.

Once through the door, to the sides we can see we can see two stones with a central hole, which were the brackets to hold the doors which once hung here.

To your right as you enter you can also see the a closed and locked gate, this is the start of theCamino de Ronda or Calle del Foso, which currently begins here and would have at one point ran all the way around Alhambra.

The History of the Puerta de los Carros

The Carros door is not original from the Nasrid period, but was made later, between the years 1526 and 1536 due to construction projects. A doorway way required to move materials such as columns and ashlars in and out of Alhambra during the construction of the Palacio de Carlos V. At the same time Cuesta de Gomérez was enlarged and reformed, making both the Puerta de las Granadas and the Pilar de Carlos V, in addition, the reconstruction of the Sabika Forest.

For this purpose, the Puerta de los Carros was made , which was also called Puerta del Carril or Gate of the Road. Currently it continues to maintain its function to access the Placeta de Carlos V and is the only place where you can access by vehicle, only taxis and authorized vehicles, inside the Monumental site.

The Puerta de los Carros appears in our Complete Guide to Visiting Granada!

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