The place where we are was known during the Middle Ages as the Plaza del Arrabal, a site for commercial purposes located outside the city walls with the aim of avoiding the toll that merchants had to pay if they wanted to introduce their products into the city. When King Philip II permanently moved the Court to Madrid in the year 1561, he carried out an expansion of the existing wall, and it was then that the so-called Plaza del Arrabal became part of the city perimeter. This monarch entrusted the architectural project to his favorite architect Juan de Herrera, also the creator of the Monastery of El Escorial, although it was completed under the reign of his successor with the help of other masters such as Juan Gómez de Mora. The grand work began with the Houses of the Bakery and the Butchery - the facing enclosures between the towers - which were intended to store these goods. Buildings with five floors were erected at the four corners - today there are only three due to the later remodeling carried out by Villanueva - using stone bases, brick on the walls, and slate spires on the roofs, following the typology of Habsburg architecture.