This Monday morning, Madrid City Council began to dismantle the canvas that surrounds the Puerta de Alcalá, which has been the subject of restoration works, with the aim of disassembling it being completed before Christmas and that it can be installed the nativity scene that is placed at the foot of the door every year.
"A moment has arrived that all Madrid residents have been waiting for (...). We hope that the works will be completely finished before Christmas and that this Christmas the door will already shine in all its splendor," said the delegate of Culture, Tourism and Sports in statements to the press when the first part of the canvas has fallen and a piece of the Puerta de Alcalá can already be seen, between scaffolding.
The first part of the canvas that is being removed corresponds to one of the ends of the face of the door that faces Alcalá Street, uphill, and Retiro Park.
In this way, the process to fully discover the Puerta de Alcalá, which will take place in three phases (one for each section of the monument), has begun on the south side, the one that faces Alfonso XII Street.
There the canvas has already been removed and throughout this week the scaffolding will be dismantled, to then move on to the central part and then to the north side of the Puerta de Alcalá.
During the removal of the scaffolding and the canvas, the construction booths will be erected and the garden surroundings of the monument will be prepared, work that will end at Christmas time, so a Nativity scene will finally be installed.
For months now, the Puerta de Alcalá has been completely surrounded by scaffolding from which large canvases hang that reproduce the monument that is hidden behind them.
This is to cover up some works that began last February with the aim of restoring this iconic and central Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC).
The work, which had a completion period of between 10 and 12 months, came after a long study in which it was found that the Puerta de Alcalá presented indicators of deterioration that affected its conservation to a greater or lesser extent.
Rivera de la Cruz has pointed out that the idea is “to be able to place the nativity scene that is always placed under the Puerta de Alcalá as soon as the canvas is completely removed.”
“That's the plan,” said the PP councilor, while emphasizing that “absolutely precise” and “exquisite” restoration work has been done.
And he pointed out that the data obtained during the works "will be used to better care for the Puerta de Alcalá in the future, and even to help the restoration of other monuments."
The delegate of Culture, Tourism and Sports added that there have been “more than a hundred people involved in all this work”, and has valued that all of them have done “work with absolute enthusiasm and absolute dedication, trying to minimize deadlines”.
“Because it is true that we Madrid residents are already in a hurry to recover what we consider to be our door,” added Rivera de la Cruz.
