The New Year’s Eve square in Madrid where Spain’s twelve-grapes tradition is televised is Puerta del Sol.
Puerta del Sol is one of Madrid’s best-known public squares and a central location for national New Year celebrations. Its clock tower provides the chimes that people follow while eating twelve grapes, one for each stroke. The televised countdown has made the square’s clock familiar well beyond Madrid.
The square’s name means “Gate of the Sun,” although the original gate that gave it the name no longer stands. Puerta del Sol is also associated with the statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree, a symbol of Madrid, and with Kilometer Zero, the traditional reference point for Spain’s radial roads. It is easy to confuse the square with Plaza Mayor, another famous Madrid landmark, but the midnight grape ritual is specifically linked to Puerta del Sol’s clock and its broadcasts.