Gateway

Gateway, the passage or opening in which a gate or large door is hung. This may be either an open way with side pillars or a covered way vaulted or roofed over. The gateway, being a most important point in all fortified places, is usually protected by various devices. It is flanked by towers with loopholes, from which assailants may be attacked, and is frequently overhung by a machicolated battlement, from which missiles of every description may be poured upon the besiegers. In the middle ages gateways were also fortified with one portcullis or more, and had frequently an outer work or barbican in front of the gate defended with drawbridges. City gates, and gates of large castles, have in all ages been the subjects of great care in construction; and when from some cause, such as the cessation of constant fighting, or a change in the mode of warfare, gateways have lost their importance in a military point of view they have maintained their position as important architectural works, and although no longer fortified have become ornamental. In very ancient times we read of the 'gate' as the most prominent part of a city, where proclamations were made, and where the kings administered justice. The Greek and Roman gates were frequently of great magnificence. The propylæa at Athens is a beautiful example, and the triumphal arches of the Romans are the ornamental offspring of their city gates. At Autun in France two Roman gateways, and at Trèves in Germany one, still exist, and formed the models on which early medieval gateways were designed. Most of the English towns have lost their walls and city gates; but a few, such as York and Chester, still retain them, and give us an idea of the buildings which formerly existed, but which now remain only in the name of the streets where they once stood. English castles retain more of their ancient gateways, and from these we may imagine the frowning aspect every town presented during the middle ages. Abbeys, colleges, and every class of buildings were shut in and defended by similar barriers; many of these still exist in Oxford and Cambridge, and the abbey gates of Canterbury and Bury St Edmunds are well-known specimens of monastic gateways. The feeling of personal freedom, which is so strong in England, must no doubt have tended greatly to hasten the demolition of these marks of feudalism; but in many parts of the Continent we still find these barriers kept up.