Port Gate in Szczecin

Port Gate is a Baroque town gate of Szczecin, formerly called the Berlin Gate because the road to Berlin led through it. It is one of the two surviving gates of the Prussian fortifications, alongside the Royal Gate, and stands on Plac Brama Portowa.

Who built it and when

According to Wikipedia, the gate was built in 1725-1727 to a design by the Dutch fortification engineer Gerhard Cornelius van Wallrawe, author among other things of the rebuilding of the fortresses in Kłodzko and Magdeburg. The Encyclopedia of West Pomerania gives the earlier years 1724-1725 and the former name Brandenburg Gate, so the construction dates differ depending on the source. The structure is entered in the heritage register and is built of brick in the Baroque style.

What decorates the façade

The outer wall was decorated by the French sculptor Bartholomé Damart. A shield with the monogram of King Frederick William I, the founder of the gate, was placed here. In the attic hangs a plaque with a gilded Latin inscription about the rights of the Brandenburg state to Pomerania and Szczecin, because in 1719 Frederick William bought the city from the Swedes.

Above the inscription is a panorama of the city with Viadrus, the god of the Oder, and higher up an oval shield with the Prussian coat of arms topped with a royal crown.

The gate in the 20th century

In 1902-1932 a fountain with a neo-Baroque monument to the goddess Amphitrite, carved by the Berlin sculptor Reinhold Felderhoff, stood in front of the gate. During the Second World War, for fear of destruction, the decorated gables of the gate were dismantled and hidden in the Arkoński Forest, and the gate itself was covered with ivy. Thanks to this it survived the war, and the gables were found in 1957 and put back.

In 1976-2013 the interior housed a Cepelia shop. A Wikipedia entry from 2015 mentions a chamber theatre that took over the interior of the gate.

Nearby

From the square it is a short way to the Archcathedral Basilica of St James the Apostle, and about a kilometre further on lies the Chrobry Embankment.

Practical information

• Address: Plac Brama Portowa 5, Szczecin, Nowe Miasto.
• The gate is best viewed from the outside, as part of a walk around the Old Town.
• Whether the interior is open today and what it houses, check before your visit with the manager or the city information service.