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Abstract: During the 16th century, the need to improve the accesses to cities and the communications with the territory prompted the intervention of the Castilian town councils to promote several public works like the repair of roads, the building of bridges, the maintenance of the city walls, and the renovation and ornament of the city gates. Walls and gates became a distinction and emblem of an urban world. Besides the undeniable utility as guardians of the city’s tax system and protectors of the population’s health, the gates achieved a singular and emblematic character in the Castilian Renaissance due to their role as the «façade of the city». This consideration of the gates as urban embellishment as well as images of prestige and triumphal commemoration would be reflected, in certain occasions, through the elaborated repertoires of ornamentation and epigraphy that adorned these entrances to the Castilian cities. This essay focuses on that process of improvement and embellishment that the Castilian city gates have undergone in the 16th century, showcasing the extraordinary consideration that these public works had for the municipal governments at that time. 

Keywords: City gates; History of modern Architecture; Urban History; Triumphal arches; Castilian Renaissance; Castilian city gates.