Madrid's best-known New Year's Eve countdown and grape-eating tradition takes place at Puerta del Sol.
Puerta del Sol is a major public square in central Madrid and the location of the clock whose twelve midnight chimes guide Spain's traditional grape ritual. Television networks broadcast the clock and the crowds gathered below, allowing people throughout Spain to eat one grape with each chime for luck in the twelve months ahead.
The square's clock is mounted on the former post office building, now the headquarters of the Community of Madrid. The building's clock was installed in the nineteenth century and became a national New Year's symbol through radio and television coverage. Large crowds commonly gather in the square, while many more follow the event from home.
Puerta del Sol is also associated with Madrid's symbolic center: the Kilometer Zero plaque, from which Spain's radial roads are traditionally measured. The nearby Plaza Mayor is another famous Madrid landmark, but it is not the square whose clock drives the nationally televised grape countdown.