[1] The arch was a stone and brick structure that stood on the south side of the Puente de Piedra, in front of the Royal Houses (Casas Reales).

[6] In the 1760s, during the government of Viceroy Manuel de Amat y Junyent, the structure was repaired and the clock in one of the towers of the church of San Pedro was installed in the place where a statue of Our Lady of Bethlehem had been.

[6] In 1852, during the presidency of José Rufino Echenique, a new monumental clock illuminated from the inside and visible from both sides, which was donated by the Jesuits,[2][6] was installed.

[6] However, just over a decade later, both the clock and the oak wood from which the arch was made were destroyed when a fire started by the Chilean baker Cornelio Granados consumed them in the early hours of April 10, 1879.

[2][6] His wife, Maiz Sara Bossellar, a Dutch woman who was the daughter of a refiner at an hacienda in Palpa and had married him before the age of 15, left him as a result.