Puerta de la Compañía

Gate of the Company
Puerta de la Compañía Monsan
Front view of the Gate of the Company
General information
Architectural style	Neoclassical
Classification	Construcción de Interés Cultural
Location	Conquistadores, Monsa
Address	Conquistadores Boulevard, del Sitio Avenue and Francisco Ruiz de Áravo St.
Construction started	1596
Completed	1604
Height	43.00 m
Design and construction
Architect	Gerardo del Henar

The Puerta de la Compañía (English: Gate of the Company) is a Neo-classical monument and gate in the city of Monsa. Built between 1596 and 1604 in honour of the South Seas Company by the Prince Carlos IV of Monsa, it has transformed into an icon of the city.

The gate is the result of several other previous works until 1596, when it was commissioned to be built years after the creation of the South Seas Company by the Prince Carlos IV of the principality. The architect in charge of the work was Gerardo del Henar, whose others works in the city contemplated the General Archives and several squares during a period of important changes in the urban design of Monsa. The gate substituted a previous one that existed in the same place as part of the walls that surrounded Monsa and whose gates marked the entrance to the city from the south. Although when it was completed the gate remained one of the entrances to the city, the work was one of the initial phases of the first enlargement of the grid of Monsa, which continued during the next century with the construction of several palaces in the neighbourhood of Conquistadores.

The structure was conceived following a Neo-classical architectural style and emulating similar triumphal arches in other Astyrian capitals. With the tearing down of the walls surrounding Monsa, the area surrounding the gate was named Plaza de la Compañía (Square of the Company), with the gate forming one of the principal axes of the city and being transformed into part of a roundabout, which connects the Conquistadores Boulevard with the del Sitio Avenue and the Francisco Ruiz de Áravo St.

With the consolidation of the enlarged city, during the start of the 19th century, the gate started getting an important status among the Monsan population and tourists that arrived to the city. It was going to be in 1964, when it was named a Construcción de Interés Cultural by the Council of Government.

History

The life outside the walls of Monsa has been subject of several literary works and paintings across the centuries.

Historically, the city of Monsa has been protected by a series of defensive walls that counted with different sections and their respective entrances to the city. These entrances were generally guarded by members of the Knights of Montesa and served as checkpoints by customs agents to register and have a control of the goods that were entering and leaving the city. Monsa had three gates —de la Recoleta, Campanas and Zabala— of which Zabala, was the most transited one as it marked the beginning of the path that led to A Gracia in the Kingdom of Morroseta. For defensive reasons, the gates had an opening and closure time that was respected by merchants, knights and the inhabitants of both inner Monsa and the countryside who used to sold their goods in the old Market del Olivo y Elche; during winters, the gates were opened at 8:00 a.m. and closed at 10:30 p.m., while during summers, they remained open one more hour.

While inside the walls Monsa had a urban life marked by the emergence of culture and Catholic religiosity, historians describe life outside the walls as completely different. Pedro Ramírez de Corbet wrote in 1836 that farmers living outside the walls during the 16th century coexisted with certain insecurity, often prone to the theft of their animals and few belongings and because of this situation, the Principality decided to create the Mozos de Escuadra, whose task was to protect the vicinities of the city.

The first gate: Puerta de Zabala

The second Puerta de Zabala painted by Benito Guindos de Alarcón during a national event.

Before the construction of the Puerta de la Compañía, the del Sitio Avenue used to end in the Puerta de Zabala, a smaller and less monumental gate that was was located closer to the city. The Puerta de Zabala used to connect the main square of the city with the paths that led to the Kingdom of Morroseta. Although its importance among the other two gates always gave a predominant place in the entrance of the city, the process of forming a tradition around it is documented as slow and gradual across the centuries. It was going to be the marriage of the Prince Fernando I with the Estefanía Ortegal of Morroseta in 1505, that consolidated a tradition surrounding the gate and along the —then— street of del Sitio, when the Princess was received by the Court of Monsa after trespassing it.

Shortly after the marriage of the two, the preoccupation for its design and the condition of the street took Fernando I to commission one of the first urban planning to modernize and dignify the entrance to the city and the palace. The Prince selected the plan created by the Monsan architect Juan Francisco del Llano, who designed a gate formed by a central arch and two smaller gates that were called "portillos" and served as pedestrian gates. The gate was the first to get certain decorations such as a religious figure and the coat of arms of the principality. In the years that followed, the gate was destructed and rebuilt with new designs at least three more times; in 1513, the street was paved with setts and the gate reformed, from the old simple gate to a new that was made with bricks and contemplated several new figures; however, in 1531, the bad state of these figures took the Princess María Fernanda of Monsa to request a new design to Rafael Maldonado del Arma and finally in 1559, a new gate was erected, now with a similar design to the actual one.

Carlos IV and the new city

Prince Carlos IV, founder of colonial institutions and under whose reign was projected the first enlargement of the city.

In 1560, the first colonial expedition departed from the port of Monsa with direction to what is today the Scottopian Isles and Saint Bartholomew; abroad, explorers like Francisco Ruiz de Áravo and Celestino del Canillo received the name of conquistadores, and were commissioned with the task of returning with new lands for the crown of Monsa. At their return, the Prince Carlos III of Monsa, whose work was crucial in the Monsan settlements abroad, received the news of the explorers with excitement and after signing the Monsa-Morroseta Treaty of 1561, created the initial Casa del Mar Sur, or House of the South Sea that dealt with most colonial affairs. However, with the death of Carlos III, the principality opened a new chapter in their colonies and the city; Carlos IV of Monsa was crowned Sovereign Prince and in 1594, he divided the House of the South Sea in two state institutions, the General Archives of Overseas and the South Seas Company.

In the city, Carlos IV visualised a lack of urban projection and written records left clear that his entrance through the Puerta de Zabala had not caused him any excitement. Several years before, a plague had caused the aristocracy to start commissioning palaces outside the walls of the city leaving clear that the borders had to be changed. In 1594, several designs were presented to the prince by different architects until the one that was selected was that of Gerardo del Henar; under his new urban plan, the city of Monsa was going to grow in what Carlos IV called the neighbourhood of Conquistadores. The new gate took about ten years to be completed and its construction was heavily marked by the excessive demands of del Henar.