Spain’s nationally televised New Year’s Eve midnight chimes take place at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol.
The square is home to the Real Casa de Correos, whose clock is used for the famous countdown. Viewers across Spain follow the clock’s sequence and try to eat 12 grapes, one with each midnight chime. The ritual is among the country’s most recognizable New Year customs.
Puerta del Sol is also an important civic and geographic location. A plaque there marks Kilometre Zero, the point from which Spain’s radial roads are traditionally measured. The square’s name means “Gate of the Sun,” although the historic gate that gave it that name no longer survives.
People sometimes answer “Madrid” because the entire capital is the setting, but the more precise landmark is Puerta del Sol. The clock is on the Real Casa de Correos building, not on Madrid’s Plaza Mayor or the nearby Gran Vía.