Cuesta de la Vega

Cuesta de la Vega descends through one of the ravines that served as natural defence for Mayrit, the Muslim citadel, and links calle Mayor with the river meadows. Its course winds because the terrain forces it to. The gate that names it was the main southern entrance to the medieval wall: narrow, set beneath a powerful tower, with iron leaves. It already appears flanked by turrets on Wyngaerde’s map (1562). An 1876 guidebook went so far as to call the climb “completely Moroccan.” The City widened it in 1847 with seven switchbacks on a double ramp, hence its nickname: cuesta de las siete revueltas (“slope of the seven turns”). The 1970 demolition of the Palacio de la Cuesta de la Vega brought a buried surprise: 120 metres of wall with square towers, the remains that today form the Parque del Emir Mohamed I.