The Arco del Portillo of Córdoba

The Arco del Portillo (Córdoba) is a remnant of Córdoba's history, built in 1496 and located on San Fernando street, near the church of San Francisco. It separates the neighborhood of the Cathedral and the San Francisco-Ribera neighborhood, and was initially adjoined to a house owned by Fernando Sánchez Torquemada, but was reconstructed in 1703 to accommodate carriages. It is also known as arco de San Francisco or portillo del Corbache.

Arco del Portillo was declared a cultural heritage monument in 1931. A hanging lantern was added to Arco del Portillo in 1923, and a concrete pin was installed in 1948 to prevent its collapse. A house adjacent to Arco del Portillo collapsed in 2013, necessitating restoration work completed in 2020. In 2023, researchers discovered the remains of a circular tower belonging to the Roman wall from the middle of the 1st century in an adjacent house.

Today, it remains the only surviving access between the Medina and Axerquía regions in Córdoba. It was formerly called portillo de los Mercaderes due to the number of merchants who stood in the vicinity, as San Fernando street was a major commercial space.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons