"The Mazarelos Arch, also known as Puerta de Mazarelos, is one of the gates that gave access to the city of Santiago de Compostela in the Middle and Modern Ages, when the city was defended by a wall.
Characteristics
The Mazarelos Gate is the only remaining vestige of the wall of Santiago de Compostela, as the rest of it was demolished between the 18th and 19th centuries.
The gate, with a round arch, has a building on the south side that preserves the foundations of the defensive tower that flanked the gate. Both buildings are made of granite.
History
Construction
Almanzor's military expedition on Santiago de Compostela in 997 led Bishop Cresconio (1037-1066) to rebuild the defensive system created by Sisnando II in 968.
On the second defensive ring (deep moats and fences) that surrounded the city centre (the first protected the locus Sancti Iacobi), Cresconius built another wall with square towers and an inner ring.
Importance of the gate in the Middle Ages
This gate formerly allowed travellers from Orense to enter Santiago de Compostela.
In the Middle Ages, pilgrims arriving in Santiago de Compostela from Mérida along the Vía de la Plata entered the city through the Mazarelos gate, which was also the place through which the Ribeiro wine entered from the city of Orense, as stated in Chapter IX of Book V of the Codex Calixtinus, quoted by Miguel Etayo Gordejuela:
A cidade de Compostela is situated between two rivers called Sar and Sarela. The Sar lies to the east between Monte do Gozo and the city, and the Sarela to the west. There are seven entrances and gates to the city. The first entrance is called Porta Francíxena; the second, Porta da Pena; the third, Porta de Sofrades; the fourth, Porta do Santo Peregrino; the fifth, Porta Falgueira, which leads to Padrón; the sixth, Porta de Susannis; and the seventh, Porta de Mazarelos, through which the precious Bacchus arrives in the city.
Miguel Etayo Gordejuela
There is evidence that in the Middle Ages several money changers lived in the square of Mazarelos, and also that the gate of Mazarelos was one of the most frequented by passers-by and transporters of goods, since the road that linked Santiago de Compostela with the Sar region reached it, and Castilian cereals and wines from the Ribeiro and the Ulla valley reached Santiago through it.
Reforms
During the 16th and 17th centuries, important repairs and reforms were made to the city's defensive system.
Finally, in the 19th century, the walls were demolished, leaving only the Mazarelos arch and some other small remains."
(
visit link)