Walls of Philip IV

The Walls of Felipe IV (Spanish: Real Cerca de Felipe IV) surrounded the city of Madrid between 1625 and 1868. Philip IV ordered their construction to replace the earlier Walls of Philip II and the Walls del Arrabal, which had already been surpassed by the growth of population of Madrid. These were not defensive walls, but essentially served fiscal and surveillance purposes: control the access of goods to the city and ensure the collection of taxes, and watch who went in and out of Madrid. The materials used for construction were brick, mortar and compacted earth.

It was one of the five walls that surrounded the city of Madrid in different times.

The walls' route began from the currents Cuesta de la Vega, via to Rondas of Segovia, Toledo, Valencia and Atocha, plaza del Emperador Carlos V, avenues of Ciudad de Barcelona and Menéndez Pelayo, Calle de Alcalá, plaza de la Independencia, streets of Serrano, Jorge Juan, plaza de Colón, Génova, Sagasta, Carranza, and turn left by San Bernardo ran by Santa Cruz de Marcenado, Serrano Jover, la Princesa, Ventura Rodríguez, Ferraz, Cuesta de San Vicente, Paseo de la Virgen del Puerto and up bordering the Campo del Moro, until link with Cuesta de la Vega.

As in 1590 the constructions exceeded the Walls of Philip II, because during the reign of Philip IV "the Great" population tripled with respect to that of his grandfather, it was necessary to expand the boundaries of Madrid. The idea of a new walls start in 1614 and it was commissioned the project to Juan Gómez de Mora, chief architect of the king and of the City Council. Gómez de Mora marked the boundaries of the new walls in a report in 1617 indicating that the various sections of the walls should be carried out by master architects.

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