The (Spanish: Lions Gateway) is the main entrance to the first section of the

Chapultepec Park Chapultepec, more commonly called the "Bosque de Chapultepec" (Chapultepec Forest) in Mexico City, is one of the largest city parks in Mexico, measuring in total just over 686 hectares (1,695 acres). Centered on a rock formation called Chapultep ...

, in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. It is found near

Paseo de la Reforma Paseo de la Reforma (translated as "Promenade of the Reform") is a wide avenue that runs diagonally across the heart of Mexico City. It was designed at the behest of Emperor Maximilian by Ferdinand von Rosenzweig during the era of the Secon ...

and it connects with Calzada Juventud Heroica. It was created by Antonio Muñoz García.

Description

The gateway serves the first section of

, a public park in

. Immediately, it connects with the Lions Garden, a green area that was originally part of the

San Miguel Chapultepec San Miguel Chapultepec is a colonia or neighborhood in Delegación Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico City. Its borders are: * Avenida Constituyentes and Avenida Chapultepec on the west, bordering Chapultepec Park * The Circuito Interior José Vasconce ...

town, and whose main parish was set there. Calzada Juventud Heroica starts at the gateway. It is connected to the 1975 Bridge of the Lions (which crosses

Circuito Interior The Circuito Interior Bicentenario ("Bicentennial Inner Loop") or more commonly, Circuito Interior or even more simply Circuito, is a 42-km-long (26 mi) urban freeway (in parts) and at-grade boulevard (in others), forming a loop around the centra ...

) and reaches the '' Altar a la Patria''. It was named after the two lion bronze sculptures that lie on

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

plinths; the mineral came from Germany, Canada and

Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type ...

. The plinths serve as if they were entrance guardhouses. Visitors access through an iron gate with a relief of an eagle with its wings outstretched that is located on the ground floor. The gate is made of cast iron and was created by the smelter N. Norris and it was modeled by the sculptor J. Tovar. File:Puerta de los leones en Chapultepec 1.jpg, Lateral view of the gate File:Puerta de los leones en Chapultepec 3.jpg, Rear view towards Paseo de la Reforma with the

Torre Mayor The Torre Mayor (literally "Major Tower") is a skyscraper in Mexico City, Mexico. With a height of 225 meters (738 feet) to the top floor and 55 stories, it is the third tallest building in Mexico. It was surpassed in height by Torre BBVA Bancom ...

and the

Torre BBVA México The Torre BBVA México ("BBVA México Tower", formerly Torre BBVA Bancomer) is a skyscraper on Paseo de la Reforma in Colonia Juárez, Mexico City. It is the headquarters of BBVA México, Mexico's largest bank. Upon its completion in 2015 it beca ...

in the background. File:Puerta de los leones en Chapultepec 4.jpg, Lion sculpture on the right pedestal. File:Puerta de los leones en Chapultepec 6.jpg, Gate detail.

History

The lion sculptures were created for the Legislative Federal Palace by

Émile Bénard Henri Jean Émile Bénard (June 23, 1844 – October 15, 1929) was a French architect and painter. Bénard was the winner of the 1899 International Competition for the Phoebe A. Hearst Architectural Plan to design the campus of the University of ...

in 1898. The palace was never finished due to the spark of the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

and its remnants became the Monument to the Revolution. The gateway was opened on 17 September 1921.

References

{{Paseo de la Reforma 1921 establishments in Mexico Chapultepec Gates