The Puerta del Sol was originally one of the accesses of the fence that surrounded Madrid in the XV century . This gathered near its perimeter the medieval suburbs that had grown outside the walls, around the Christian wall of the XII century . The name of the door comes from a sun that adorned the entrance, placed there by the door being oriented towards the east. Among the buildings that gave prestige he was in the early Church of Good Success and San Felipe el Real .
Although from the centuries XVII to XIX the door had importance as a meeting place (here he was one of the gossip most famous of the villa from the Golden Age , the famous steps of San Felipe ), it was not a definite place, as the Plaza Mayor , and took up half of the current space. The Post Office was built by the French architect Jaime Marquet between 1766 and 1768 ; it was later Ministry of the Interior (Interior) and General Directorate of Security of the State during the dictatorship of Franco , and today is home to the presidency of the Community of Madrid . Post this House will start the urban lay the groundwork for what is now the Puerta del Sol and its growing importance as a central point of Madrid. After the conversion of the post office in the Interior Ministry headquarters ( 1847 ), it decided to demolish some homes in the area to enhance the building and provide security. The result would be the creation of a large square.
To this end, enforcement of confiscation of Mendizabal , are demolished, among others, the convents of San Felipe and Our Lady of Victories located there. Between 1857 and 1862 , Lucio del Valle , Juan Rivera and Jose Morer carry out the reform of the square, giving it its current appearance. To do maintain alignment of the post office on one side and construct buildings with uniform facades defining a semicircular space.
In 1959 it is reformed by Manuel Blacksmith Palaces incorporating in its center a landscaped garden and fountains. In 1986 the architects Antonio Riviere , Javier Ortega and Anton Capital introduce a new reform, acquiring more importance the pedestrian area. The streetlights installed on the occasion of this remodeling, were popularly dubbed as suppositories and caused much controversy due to its modern design. They were eventually replaced by current lamps "fernandino" style, although the two central poles of the square suppositories pervivieron few more years, to be unified a few years later with the rest of the square.
Between 2004 and 2009 the construction works were performed a transport interchange , which opened on June 27 , 2009, that on the rail network of commuter to the underground station Sol. The station has become its size in the largest The world with 28 m deep, 207 m long and 20 m wide. Its lobby has 7500 m². The entrance to the intercom, like a igloo has once again changed the face of the Puerta del Sol.
The May 15, 2011, following a demonstration called by the platform Real Democracy Now , dozens of protesters camped in the square that night, adding more and more people and still thousands during the following week, claiming a political, social and economic change in Spain. Thus becomes the square at the command 15M Movement . On August 2, the National Police evicted the last camped.