The Mill Gate in Stargard stands on Portowa Street, above the bed of the Mill Canal. According to Wikipedia, the channel running beneath it is about 6 metres wide. The gate is a two-storey brick structure on a rectangular plan measuring 14 by 6 m, with two octagonal towers rising above the hipped roof. According to the entry, the towers are 28 m high.

A gate you had to sail through

The Mill Canal branches off the Ina River at Basztowa Street and, according to Wikipedia, flows back into it near Zakole Street. The gate thus closed the waterway into the town, just as other gates closed the land routes. According to Wikipedia, it performed control functions and had the right to collect toll for the carriage of goods on the river. On the outer side there are two small guard windows above the passage, and on the town side three.

The name comes from a mill built next to it on the canal in 1240-1268, as Wikipedia states. The names Wodna (Water), Portowa (Port), Herbowa (Coat of Arms) and Rzeczna (River) were also used. The name Herbowa refers to the coat of arms: according to Wikipedia, a drawing of the gate appeared on the old seals and in the town's old coat of arms, which was still in use in the 20th century.

How old it is: 13th century or 15th century

Accounts of the age of the structure diverge. The heritage register, according to the zabytek.pl website, describes the Mill Gate as a defensive wall from the 13th century. Wikipedia writes that the gate was probably built in the first half of the 15th century, and in the entry on Stargard itself it says it was erected in the mid-15th century. There is no resolution here: one source gives the 13th century, the other the 15th, so whenever a date is given it is worth stating where it comes from.

Detention house, Neo-Gothic and renovation

The appearance of the gate changed over the centuries. In the first half of the 19th century it served as a detention house, and the arch of the passage was filled in with half-timbered walls. In the second half of that century it was remodelled in the Neo-Gothic spirit: the form of the passage was changed and numerous battlements were added. In 1938 its appearance was somewhat softened. The towers have arrow slits and crenellations, and the brick helmets end in spires with balls and griffins. The town-side elevation is decorated with two blind windows with a rosette, modelled on the Collegiate Church of St Mary. According to Wikipedia, the major renovation, the first in 70 years, took place in 2008-2010.

In the days of the Polish People's Republic it housed a PTTK information point, later an association of fine art enthusiasts. Since 2007, after a competition, the gate has been occupied by the Stargard Knightly Brotherhood Gryf.

An exception among gates, according to Wikipedia

The entry on Stargard calls the Mill Gate the only one in Poland, and one of two in the world, of the gates located over a riverbed. This is the assessment of the authors of the Wikipedia entry, which could not be checked in another source, so it should be treated as an opinion. The entry on the gate itself says more cautiously that it belongs to the unique monuments of this type in Europe, both for its function in the Middle Ages and for its architecture.

The gate is part of the system of defensive walls, which, together with the Collegiate Church of St Mary, was recognised as a Historic Monument (pomnik historii) by a regulation of the President of Poland of 17 September 2010. Wikipedia also mentions that from the gate known as Portowa (Port) stretch Chrobry Park and Castle Park, forming part of Stargard's planty (town park belt). The conditions of entry to the interior of the gate are set by its occupant.