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
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 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 the period. 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 Avenue of the Sitio 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

Life outside the walls of Monsa.

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 winters, they remained opened 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 1523 that farmers living outside the walls 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.