This attractive stone gateway is the only one of the city’s original eight gates that was not dismantled during the 19th-century modernisation. It was built around 1300, although the top is a later addition. The adjoining walls, together with two towers, have also been left standing.
To the north of the gate and included in the entry fee is the Barbican . The most intriguing remnant of the medieval fortifications, this powerful, circular brick bastion is adorned with seven turrets. There are 130 loopholes in its 3m-thick walls. This striking piece of defensive art was built around 1498 as an additional protection of the Florian Gate, and was once connected to it by a narrow passage running over a moat. It’s one of the very few surviving structures of its kind in Europe, and also the largest and perhaps the most beautiful.
