As the main entrance for anyone arriving from the south, Micklegate Bar was the most important of York’s four main medieval gates and where visiting royalty would have entered. First documented during the reign of Henry II (1154–89) as Micklelith, the imposing gated entrance also has a grisly history, as this is where the severed heads of traitors were displayed on pikes. This practice continued until 1754. The gate was heightened in the 14th century to house a portcullis and a barbican was added, although it's since been demolished. Shields depict the arms of the City of York and the royal arms too.
Berlin’s most famous landmark and site of many historic moments, the Brandenburg Gate was built by the Prussian King Frederick William II as the main entrance to the city. The Neo-classical design was modelled on the Propylaeum, gateway to Athens’ Acropolis, and in 1795 it was crowned with a bronze statue of the Goddess of Victory. The statue was stolen by Napoleon after Prussia’s defeat (and later returned). The gate was also used as a party symbol by the Nazis – though badly damaged, it survived the war and came to symbolise Berlin's division. It's subsequently come to represent unity and freedom.
An exact replica of the original wrought-iron and gold-leaf gate that marked the entrance to the Palace of Versailles' cour d'honneur courtyard was erected in 2008, more than 200 years after the original was pulled down during the French Revolution. Historians and expert craftspeople painstakingly recreated the intricate and imposing entrance way, built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart in the 1680s. It's covered with over 100,000 gold leaves that have been crafted into shapes including the fleur de lys and crossed capital Ls that reference King Louis XIV.
One of Britain’s finest period properties, Burghley House is a treasure trove of Tudor art and architecture. The design of the splendid mansion was conceived by William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, and it's still owned by the Cecil family today. There’s a plethora of beautiful gates on the property and surrounding parkland, but one stands out: the magnificent Golden Gate on the mansion's imposing west front. Designed in 1693 by Jean Tijou, a French Huguenot ironworker, the ornate gate is flanked by four tall octagonal turrets.
The towering twin minarets of Bab Zuweila, the southern gateway to the old medieval citadel of Cairo, were multi-purpose. It's here that the Sultan oversaw the start of the hajj (the annual pilgrimage to Mecca); where scouts kept watch for enemies; and where criminals were executed before their severed heads were displayed for all to ogle at. Today the towers of the beautiful 11th-century entrance way are typically used by tourists to gaze down at the old city and sprawling modern capital beyond.
Latin for ‘black gate’, the Porta Nigra is the largest remaining Roman city gate north of the Alps and dates back to around AD 170–180. It was one of four gateways constructed to protect the boundaries of the city of Trier, which was the Roman capital of northern Europe. Germany’s oldest city, Trier was known as the “Second Rome” and has a wealth of Roman remains.
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A fearsome pair of stone lions guard the high entrance to Wat Benchamabophit, also known as “the marble temple” or Wat Ben. Revered for its classic religious Thai architecture, the temple was built in 1899 for King Chulalongkorn. The entrance to the bot (main prayer room) has four pillars made from Italian marble with multi-tiered roofs topped with beautiful chofas (a decorative architectural ornament) and gold carvings.
The most important entrance to the Forbidden City, the Meridian Gate was completed in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty with other additions made during later restorations. Each one of the symmetrical structure’s five doors served a purpose – the central door, for example, was for the exclusive use of the emperor (the empress was allowed through it on her wedding day only). The large gate, which overlooks Tiananmen Square, is where visitors to the sprawling imperial palace complex now typically enter.
The ancient entrance to the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae is as awe-inspiring today as it surely was in 1250 BC, when it was constructed to symbolise the city's might. The triangular relief at the centre shows the fore legs of two lionesses set on opposite sides of a column. Their heads would have faced outwards and may well have been bronze. According to Homer, the hillside citadel in the Peloponnese was the domain of the ill-fated King Agamemnon who led the expedition against Troy.
If you think these golden gates are rather grand for a regional town hall, you’d be right. Today the exquisite Grade II-listed gates, complete with winged figures of Nike, grace the entrance to Warrington Town Hall, itself a handsome Georgian mansion. But they were originally destined for royalty. They were made for the International Exhibition of 1862 with the intention of selling them to Queen Victoria’s Norfolk estate, Sandringham. But for various reasons the sale fell through and Warrington town council snapped up the discounted gates instead. A suitably grand opening ceremony was held.
The Alhambra, Granada's Moorish masterpiece, is groaning with gorgeous gateways. The towering Gate of Justice (pictured) is the largest of them all and leads up to the Palace of Carlos Quinto. Built in 1348, its multiple arches feature both Islamic and Christian motifs – including the hand of Fatima and a sculpture of the Virgin and Child. One of the Alhambra's most richly decorated gates is the Puerta del Vino, or Gate of Wine, which sits above the Gate of Justice and was once part of an inner wall that divided the Alhambra palaces from its medina.
As the entrance to Rabat's kasbah, Bab Oudaia dates back to the 12th century when the citadel, with its palace, mosque and gardens, was built by the Almohad caliph Ya'qub al-Mansur. The enormous gateway has a horseshoe arch and is decorated with elaborate stone carvings and motifs. Located at the mouth of the Bou Regreg river, Rabat was founded in the 12th century as a military base of the Almohad Empire and was fortified with city walls, which also form part of the city’s UNESCO World Heritage site.
A pair of gilded bronze doors that opened onto Florence's Baptistery of St John were supposedly dubbed the Gates of Paradise by Michelangelo, no less. The Renaissance masterpiece was the work of sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, who depicted scenes from the Old Testament across the door's 10 rectangular panels. He used ground-breaking techniques to cast the bronze, a painstaking process that took him over 20 years. Originally intended for the north entrance, they were given pride of place at the east entrance, opposite the Duomo. The original doors were restored early in the 21st century and now reside in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo. Replicas stand at the Baptistery today.
Built to show off the newly established power and wealth of the shoguns, the ornate design of Nijo castle, including its grand golden Karamon Gate, makes a mighty impression. The beautiful gate features intricate carvings of cranes and plum blossoms, which symbolise longevity, along with lions designed to protect the palatial complex. The fortified palace was built in 1603 for Tokugawa Ieyasu (the first shogun of the Edo Period) close to the far humbler Imperial Palace. It was used as his residence and for subsequent shoguns when they visited Kyoto, home of the Imperial Court.
Yomeimon, a gateway to the Toshogu Shrine, is one of Japan's most intricately decorated structures. Along with its distinctive white and gold colours, it's embellished with detailed carvings of mythical creatures. The burial complex holds the remains of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It began as a fairly simple shrine until his grandson turned it into the large and lavish complex it is today in the 1630s.
The incredible Khmer city of Angkor Thom has five gates which would once have been closed by wooden doors. The south gate is the most awe-inspiring entrance with its four giant faces gazing out in the four cardinal directions and is typically the busiest way in to the vast archaeological park. Leading up to the gate, a stone causeway stretches across a moat – here rows of giant sculptures of asuras (demons) and devas (gods) line opposite sides of the bridge.
This mighty Portland stone structure, London's only remaining old boundary gateway, is typically attributed to Sir Christopher Wren. It was built on the order of Charles II after the old wooden Temple Bar had fallen into disrepair. The imposing portal served as a gateway to the City of London on Fleet Street for 200 years (and displayed the heads of traitors until late in the 18th century). But in 1878 it was dismantled to allow the road to be widened and the Royal Courts of Justice built. It was rebuilt 10 years later at Theobalds Park, a country estate in Hertfordshire, before being returned to the City in 2004 as a gateway to St Paul's Cathedral at Paternoster Square.
The great gate of Ishtar opened onto Babylon, the magnificent Mesopotamian city that was famous for its hanging gardens – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The bright blue and green construction, built in 575 BC, was decorated with reliefs of hundreds of dragons and bulls, as German archaeologists discovered when they unearthed the gate in Iraq in 1902. The largest segments of the original gate are on display in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum. Pictured here is a reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate which sits near the ruins of Babylon, near modern Al-Ḥillah in Iraq.
With its highly ornate frescoed arches, the Ganesh Pol Gateway is one of many richly decorated entrance ways in the Amber Fort, a series of courtyards, palaces, halls, and gardens in Amer near Jaipur. At the centre of the great gate's arch is the Hindu god Ganesh, and the lavish portal leads into the private quarters of the Rajas. Constructed in the 16th century, the lavish hilltop palace was made out of sandstone and marble and combines the Rajput and Mughal architectural styles to stunning effect.
This beauty of a Baroque palace complex has longed wowed visitors from the moment they approach its grounds through grand wrought-iron gates, above which a pair of stone lions holding coats of arms loom. Built as a summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy by famous Baroque architect Johann Luckas von Hildebrandt, the upper and lower palaces sit at each end of immaculate landscaped gardens. Now home to museums and art galleries, the Upper Palace is closed until late February, while the lower palace is closed until further notice for renovations (check the website for details).
The ornate brass metalwork of Sather Gate has greeted students on their way into the main campus of University of California, Berkeley since 1909. The beautiful Beaux-Arts style gateway was given to the university by Jane K Sather as a memorial to her late husband, a wealthy banker and college trustee. Its pillars feature eight panels with bas-relief figures of four nude men (representing law, letters, medicine, and mining) and four nude women (agriculture, architecture, art, and electricity). They caused great controversy when they were first unveiled, leading to Sather to request their removal. But decades later, the figures were rediscovered and reinstalled.
This impressive gateway, which sits among the prosaic office blocks of Clerkenwell, was built in 1504 as the southern gatehouse to the Priory at Clerkenwell by the Order of St John. After Henry VIII's dissolution of monasteries, the gatehouse had various uses including as the offices of the Master of the Revels where 30 of Shakespeare’s plays were licensed. By the end of the 19th century, the gatehouse was a pub, which was frequented by Charles Dickens. Today it houses the intriguing Order of St John museum, which tells the story of the order's origins (currently closed; check website for updates).
The old city of Quebec City – Vieux Québec – retains many of its old fortifications from when it was Fort Saint-Louis, a strategically important French colony founded in the early 17th century. A few of the citadel’s original gates remain intact and can be seen along the ramparts which encircle the upper part of the old quarter: Saint-Jean (pictured), Prescott, Kent, and St. Louis gates. The historic area's rampart walk can typically be accessed via the gate's stairways.
The original New Scotland Yard, HQ of the Metropolitan Police, lies behind a set of ornate wrought-iron gates along the Victoria Embankment. Designed by architect Sir Reginald Blomfield and erected in 1904, the listed gates precede a pair of red brick buildings, now known as the Norman Shaw Buildings. Designed in the Victorian-Gothic style by celebrated architect Richard Norman Shaw, they were used by the Met from 1890 until 1967. Today the listed buildings are used as offices by the House of Commons.
One of six old gates and towers that still stand, the triple-arched Bab Makkah (or Mecca Gate) was the most important of Jeddah’s gates and remains in remarkably good condition. The Red Sea city was the gateway for Muslim pilgrims who arrived by sea to visit Mecca. As one of the entrances to the Saudi city’s historic quarter (Al Balad), the gateway leads into a maze of narrow medieval alleys, mosques and striking merchant houses made of Red Sea coral. It was part of the colossal old walls that were built in the early 16th century to protect the wealthy port from Portuguese attacks.
Remote and ravishingly beautiful, the Hindu temple complex that leads up Mount Lempuyang in Bali’s east is one of the oldest and most sacred on the island. Its awe-inspiring “gateway to heaven” lies before the lower temple and perfectly frames a soaring view of Mount Agung, Bali's tallest peak. Just after, worshippers follow three staircases to the first of the seven temples that lie along a hiking path that trails up to the sacred mountain's summit.
Designed by Walter Gilbert and Louis Weingarten of the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts, the gilded railings and wrought-iron gates of Buckingham Palace were erected in 1911 during George V's reign. They feature various regal decorations across their length including the Royal Coat of Arms. The North-Centre Gate is now the everyday entrance to the palace, while the Central Gate (pictured) is used for state occasions.
Regal Place Stanislas is the French city of Nancy’s pièce de résistance. The landmark square dates to the mid-18th century and its wrought-iron portals have earned Nancy the nickname, ‘the city with the golden gates’. Designed by ironworker Jean Lamour, the gilded entryways match up to the beauty of the triumphal arch at the square’s northern edge. Arc Héré is decorated with bas reliefs and statues of deities including Mars and Hercules.