A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall . It is a type of fortified gateway .
6-480: The Sheep Gate is a town gate in Trim , Ireland . It is a National Monument . The Sheep Gate is the only surviving gate of five that once provided access to Trim. The town wall and its gates were built in the 13th or 14th century. Sheep Gate may have been so named as a toll was charged here for sheep being brought in to be sold at market: in 1290, the murage and pavage tax was one penny per ten sheep, reduced to
12-531: A farthing in 1308. The name could also derive from the archaic meaning of cheap , meaning "market" (cf. Cheapside ). This name is not recorded before the 19th century; it may have been known as the Porch Gate, possibly from French porte ("door"), which may also give its name to the Porch Fields lying outside the city walls. The gate was locked between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. The gate was the southeastern entrance to
18-857: The city's fortifications, but during the Age of Absolutism their functions become closely linked to the collection of customs , the so-called octroi , which from 1660 onwards was charged to the market town's coffers. When absolutism in Denmark came to an end after the revolutions of 1848 , gate consumption was abolished in 1852, and since then the city gates also began to disappear. Medieval Danish city gates are found today only in Vesterport , Faaborg , and Mølleporten , Stege , as well as in Flensburg , today in Germany . Further city gates, in one form or another, can be found across
24-546: The town, and is located just north of the River Boyne . Sheep Gate survives as a stone archway. City gate City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods and animals. Depending on their historical context they filled functions relating to defense, security, health, trade, taxation, and representation, and were correspondingly staffed by military or municipal authorities. The city gate
30-577: The world in cities dating back to ancient times to around the 19th century. Many cities would close their gates after a certain curfew each night, for example, a bigger one like Prague or a smaller one like the one in Flensburg, in the north of Germany. With increased stability and freedom, many walled cities removed such fortifications as city gates, although many still survive; albeit for historic interest rather than security. Many surviving gates have been heavily restored, rebuilt or new ones created to add to
36-484: Was also commonly used to display diverse kinds of public information such as announcements, tax and toll schedules, standards of local measures, and legal texts. It could be heavily fortified, ornamented with heraldic shields , sculpture or inscriptions, or used as a location for warning or intimidation, for example by displaying the heads of beheaded criminals or public enemies. Notably in Denmark, many market towns used to have at least one city gate mostly as part of
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