Puerta de Elvira

The Gate of Elvira (Spanish: Puerta de Elvira) is an arch located in Granada, Spain. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1896. It is located at the beginning of Calle Elvira (Elvira Street), on the edge of the Albaicín neighbourhood.

The gate was formerly known as Bāb Ilbīra in Arabic. It was originally part of the 11th-century Zirid walls, but in the 14th century it was rebuilt into a heavily-fortified structure in order to be incorporated into the new Nasrid extension of the walls. Only a part of the gate remains today. A large Muslim cemetery, known as the Ibn Malik Cemetery, formerly existed outside this gate. The present-day Royal Hospital (Hospital Real) stands over a part of this former cemetery.

Text adapted from “Gate of Elvira” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Puerta de Elvira ranks #2,401 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #88 of the 602 mapped in Spain. Founded c. 1050, it is older than 90% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 325 atlas entries founded in the 11th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,211 times in the last 60 days, more than 54% of the atlas. 10 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Granada, 1 km away. It is one of the 125 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Andalusia. It is stop 21 of 30 on the Andalusian frontier castles, Cádiz to Córdoba. See how Spain compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗