Torres de Quart

The Torres de Quart or Puerta de Quart (also called de Cuarte) is one of the two remaining gates of the old Valencia city wall. It was built between 1441 and 1493. It was still in use during the Peninsular War when it was marked by cannonballs and musket shots.

The Torres de Quart was originally one of the gates in the wall ordered built by Abd al-Aziz ibn Abi Amir (1021–1061) and called Alcántara. It is thought that the Islamic gate was a cubic tower open on one side. In the wall built by the Christian rulers, the gate is so named because the road to Quart de Poblet departed from this gate. The old gate was probably a small tower with a doorway, so something much more substantial was needed as the movement of trade from the port through to the western kingdoms was of growing significance.

During the 14th century, Peter the Cruel of Castile was regularly at war with Islamic forces, the population had increased outside the original Islamic walls, and flooding of the Turia River was a growing concern. This resulted in projects to replace the Islamic walls and rebuild the gates ordered by Peter IV of Aragon. As this project progressed, in 1440 the city government began work to replace the primitive gate and build a gate more in the style of the Torres de Serranos (1392-1398). The Quart gate was considered one of the four important gates of the city together with Serranos, El Mar, and San Vicente. Quart was the western gate toward the kingdom of Castile, Serranos was the northern gate to Aragon and Catalonia, El Mar was the eastern gate to the port and the sea, and San Vicente was the southern gate to Xátiva and the southern kingdom.

While Quart is one of the principal gates of the city, it is not of primary importance as Torres de Serranos. Serranos was completed in three years, whereas Quart took twenty years to complete.

The new tower was built by Francesc Baldomar (1444-1460), Jaime Pérez (1460-1468), Pere Compte (1468-1469), and Pere Bonfill (1469-1493). The gate was built with lime mortar and cobblestones with ashlar masonry in the arches, vaults, and stairs. The foundation was completed between 1441 and 1443 by master stonemason Jaime Gallén and his son Andrés de Montoro. In 1444 the tower walls were begun with the stone facade and vaulting in 1445–1446.

Text adapted from “Torres de Quart” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Torres de Quart ranks #1,806 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #65 of the 602 mapped in Spain. Founded 1441, it is older than 51% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 455 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,840 times in the last 60 days, more than 74% of the atlas. 10 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Valencia, 1 km away. See how Spain compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗