Puerta de la Compañía
| Gate of the Company | |
|---|---|
 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.